Charmed 1. The Mourning After

_DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN CHARMED OR ANY OF ITS CONTENT. ALL OF MY WRITING IS FOR ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES ONLY._

**Summary: Now that Prue is dead, how will her three sisters cope? How will Phoebe and Piper react when Paige tells them she wants to be a full-time Whitelighter? Paige's charge is keeping secrets that could change the future and the destinies of the Charmed Ones but how will Piper, Phoebe and Paige react to the biggest one of all? **

_**A/N: In my story, Paige grew up with Prue, Piper and Phoebe but Sam is still her dad.**_

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**Piper-24**

**Phoebe-22**

**Paige-21**

**Chapter One-The Mourning After**

Phoebe Halliwell was having a nightmare again. She hadn't slept properly in months. Ever since her eldest sister, Prue, had died. And every night, without fail, the nightmare had crept up on her when she least expected it.

_Piper and Prue are lying on the floor, in a pool of red liquid. The wall is completely destroyed. Blood flows out of both her sisters and the air smells metallic. Leo orbs in. _

_"Phoebe? Paige? Have you got the spell? Say the spell! Damn it! Piper! Piper."_

_"Evil wind that blows, _

_That which forms below._

_No longer may you dwell, _

_Death takes you with this spell!" sob Phoebe and Paige and run over to both their sisters. "Prue? Piper? Leo heal them!" they weep together._

_Leo raises his hands above Piper's body and a warm glow spreads under his fingers and on Piper's body. Her wounds disappear and she wakes up suddenly._

_"What happened?" she asks as Phoebe hugs her tightly. Leo is already trying to heal Prue and Paige is trying to assist._

_"Leo, Paige! Do something!"_

_"Prue!" Piper cries, as her and Phoebe rush over to their sister's body._

_"Why isn't it working?" yells Paige through her sobs. Leo looks up, with tear stains down his face._

_"I can't heal the dead,"_

_Piper and Phoebe throw themselves at their two sisters and Paige keeps her hands in the healing position, determined and crying hard. The 3 sisters hug their eldest sister's body as they weep and hold onto each other for comfort._

As Phoebe woke up suddenly, she stifled a scream so she didn't wake her boyfriend. Her face was wet with tears and she was still crying silent ones. Phoebe wondered if she would ever be able to move on. This nightmare had haunted her every night since Prue's death and she wondered if her premonitions would ever give her the peace she needed and thought she deserved in able to get on with her life.

Paige Halliwell sat silently on the the edge of her bed and let the sad music engulf her. She looked up and saw that her alarm clock said it was 03:12.

Paige's way of escaping the cruel world after her eldest sister's death was drawing. It helped her too forget all her sorrow and the hardship that her, Piper and Phoebe were going through at the moment.

As Paige drew to the music, she let silent tears drip down her face, until she couldn't stop.

"I love you Prue and I miss you so much. I wish I could see you again, even for a couple of seconds. Please come back Prue," whispered Paige, finishing her drawing.

It showed three pictures of Prue. One where she was saying a spell and wind was blowing in her face, one where there were two Prues, herself and her astral projected self and the last was of Prue in the clouds, looking down on her three little sisters.

"Prue, I'm sorry. I tried to save you but I couldn't. It's all my fault you're dead but don't punish Piper and Phoebe for it. Please come back," she cried.

Piper Halliwell couldn't sleep. She sat in the attic, mourning her dead sister but too scared to let her go. There had to be a way to bring her back. Why did Leo have to heal her? Why hadn't he healed Prue? Prue was the oldest, the strongest witch and she deserved to live.

"It's just because I'm his damn wife!" she screamed through her tears.

Piper hated everyone close to her now. She feared that if she loved someone dearly, they would just be taken away from her. Like their mom had. Like Grams had. Like Prue had. She didn't think she could take it anymore. All the loss in her life was too much. What had she done to deserve this treatment? What was this punishment for? All Piper had wanted to do was live her life. Get married. Have a couple of children. Maybe even grandchildren. But no. Piper was charmed. Or doomed, depending on how you looked at it.

All the talk of this stupid destiny thing was doing her head in. They were no longer the charmed ones. That had all stopped when Prue had died. When she had been murdered. By a demon. Piper was going to vanquish this demon if it was the last thing she did. It wouldn't be hard. They already knew the human form of Shax and the name. Joanne Lacey. She was going to avenge her sister's death, no matter what.

"You can make it the Power Of Three. It was originally meant to be the Power Of Three and now it is," Leo had said.

Piper had sworn at him for saying this because she didn't care about the damn charmed ones anymore. She didn't care about saving innocents. She didn't give a toss what those bloody Elders said about their destiny. They could take away her powers if that's what they wanted to do.

Piper was never going to be a witch, let alone a charmed one. The only vanquishing she was going to do would be vanquishing Shax, the demon that had done this to Phoebe, Paige, her and Prue.

Piper wiped her eyes as she heaved The Book Of Shadows onto her lap and skimmed through the pages to find the demon, Shax. Instead, her hands stopped flipping the pages at the 'To Call A Lost Witch' spell.

Piper, Phoebe and Paige had tried this spell many times to bring Prue back but it had never worked. However, a thought suddenly crossed Piper's mind. Maybe, if she combined this spell with the 'Blood To Blood' spell and substituted the word sister into it instead of witch, then maybe there would be enough love and power to bring Prue back. Would it work? Piper put The Book on the table and started writing the spell.

Once it was finished, Piper got the necessary ingredients for the ritual and placed them down along with a few of Prue's belongings. Then she sliced her finger open with a knife for the 'Blood To Blood' part of the spell and let a few drops of blood go into the rest of the ingredients.

_"In this night and in this hour,_

_I call upon the Ancient Power._

_Blood to blood, I summon thee,_

_Blood to blood return to me._

_Bring back my sister._

_Bring back the Power of Four."_

All of a sudden, there was draught.

"Piper?"

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_**A/N: A cliffhanger on the first chapter? I wasn't planning that but I guess that's where the chapter went and if I added anymore on, I don't think it would flow as well as it does now. Please review and I will update as soon as I can.**_


	2. Sisterly Bonding

_DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN CHARMED OR ANY OF ITS CONTENT. MY STORY IS ONLY FOR ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES._

_**A/N: And here's chapter 2! Thank-you to all the people who reviewed, it means a lot to me. This chapter is quite a bit shorter than chapter 1 but I thought they needed a sister moment. Some of the lines are the same as in the show but I thought I should keep them in. Enjoy!**_

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**Chapter Two-Sisterly Bonding**

"Prue?" Piper stammered, her heart beating fast. Had her spell really worked? She hadn't expected it too, seeing as nothing else had but had it?

"No, it's just me, Phoebe," a voice whispered back. Piper could see the figure of her younger sister, come out of the shadows.

"Oh," Piper replied, trying not to show her disappointment and hurt. She looked down to her lap.

"Honey, you're bleeding," said Phoebe, comfortingly. She placed Piper's hand in hers and got a tissue from the table, wrapping it round her older sister's finger. "It's four o'clock in the morning Piper. What are you doing?" she asked, looking concerned.

"Trying to bring her back," replied Piper. Neither of them had to say who 'her' was, as they both knew Piper was talking about Prue. Now it was Phoebe's turn to look shocked.

"Oh," said Phoebe bluntly, hugging Piper.

She shrugged her off, not wanting her to come near in case her fear came true.

"I don't understand why magic can't fix this, it's not like we haven't cheated death before," cried Piper, "I don't understand why this time is any different,"

"Because Leo can't heal the dead Piper, we know that," explained Phoebe.

"There's other magic, magic that we've used before. Scrying, calling a lost witch, reversing time, it's like the book just deserted us! And deserted Prue! I just don't understand why!" she yelled.

"We lost our sister. How can we ever understand that? We have tried every magical way to bring her back…but we can't, she's gone," Phoebe cried, hugging Piper again. This time, Piper accepted the hug and returned it.

"Prue may be gone but we still have another sister. Remember Paige? You two may not get along at the best of times but this isn't one of those times. We need her as much as she needs us,"

"I know, I know. It's just, she's been so distant with us-with everyone since…" Piper started.

"She still needs us, maybe more than she thinks," said Phoebe. Piper nodded.

"Let's go," said Phoebe, offering her hand out to Piper. She took it, hesitating slightly and slowly stood up. Then, the two sisters headed down the attic stairs and to their youngest sister's bedroom. Phoebe motioned for Piper to knock. She did and opened the door a crack. Soft music was playing and she could see her sister, eyes wide open, lying on the bed.

"Paige? Can we come in?" Piper asked.

"Piper. Phoebe. Hi," Paige said, indicating that they could sit down. They did so and Paige sat up.

"How are you holding up?" Phoebe asked. Paige shrugged.

"You?" Paige asked both her sisters.

"It's hard but-" Piper said as Paige was nodding in agreement.

"I just thank God, I didn't lose either of you two as well," Phoebe whispered, hugging the both of them, "Come on, we need to get some rest. Prue will never forgive us if we look bad at her funeral," she continued, standing up and grabbing Piper's hand. The two of them went to leave.

"Guys? Can you stay in here tonight?" Paige murmured, closing her eyes.

"Of course honey," Phoebe replied whilst Piper nodded.

The three Halliwell sisters lay down on the bed and snuggled closely together.

"I love you guys," said Paige.

"I love you too," said Phoebe

"I love you," said Piper.

Soon all three of them were drifting into a deep sleep, one that they hadn't had in a long time. And needed.

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_**A/N: Hope you enjoyed the chapter! Please review and I will update soon.**_


	3. There's A New Inspector In Town

_DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN CHARMED OR ANY OF ITS CONTENT. ALL OF MY WRITING IS FOR ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES ONLY._

**_A/N: Voila! Chapter 3! A few people have been wanting me to update for a while but unfortunately, this chapter isn't particularly good. Pretty much all of this chapter is scenes from the T.V. show with Paige added so don't expect it to be very interesting. Please Read & Review!_**

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**Chapter Three-There's A New Inspector In Town**

"That which belongs to the fellowship of love, that which belongs to the circle, remains with us. The wheel turns. As life is a day. So our sister has passed into night. Nothing is final and we, who remain behind, know that one day, we will once again share the bread and wine with our sister. Oh blessed spirit. We bid you farewell. For you await a new destiny,"

Piper, Phoebe and Paige, cried openly as the priestess finished talking. Different thoughts were crossing through each of their minds. Piper was scared about being the oldest, she never wanted this much responsibility.

Phoebe was worried about how Prue's death would affect their close sisterhood. Now she was really gone, how did Phoebe know that Piper and Paige weren't just going to get on with their lives? They weren't the Charmed Ones anymore; they didn't have the pressure of vanquishing demons every week. They wouldn't have to live together.

Paige was guilt ridden. It was all her fault that Prue was gone. If she had just tried harder and not given up healing her so soon, they could still be fighting demons with Prue, instead of at her funeral.

The rest of the funeral went very quickly and as everybody left, Piper, Phoebe and Paige, said thank-you to all the guests.

Once everyone was gone, three demons suddenly shimmered in.

"Phoebe! Behind you!" Paige yelled. Phoebe hid behind one of the pillars as the demon threw an energy ball in her direction.

"Energy ball!" Paige shouted. The energy ball orbed towards her and she aimed it back at the demon. It hit the demon and he went up in flames.

"Stop it," muttered Piper under her breath as Phoebe kicked one of the demons and Cole threw one of his energy balls at it. He, like his demon friend, went up in flames.

"Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! Damn it! This is Prue's funeral for God's sake! Can we at least bury her in peace? Is that too much to ask?" screamed Piper at the top of her voice, knocking over a vase of flowers. It smashed to the floor just as Cole vanquished the last demon.

All eyes turned towards Piper, wondering what she would do next. Darryl, who wasn't very used to demon attacks, still had his gun out in front of him.

"You can put that away, demons aren't usually scared of cops who carry guns," said Cole, he thought he was helping but he really wasn't.

"Sweetie," said Phoebe, patting her boyfriend's arm, "You're not helping,"

"Piper wait," Paige called after her sister, who was walking briskly toward the door. Piper ignored her and slammed the door shut behind her. Paige went to go after her and Leo followed suit.

"Leave her, she has every right to be angry and she just needs some time alone," Phoebe said. Paige nodded in agreement but Leo kept walking.

"She's right Leo, Piper needs some alone time," Paige agreed.

Paige was making herself busy by looking out for all the guests at The Manor and insuring they had enough to eat and drink.

Piper was in her room. As soon as she had got to the house she had excused herself by saying she was feeling unwell.

Phoebe was doing something she never did and hated doing.

"Phoebe, honey. What are you doing?" asked Cole, worried about his girlfriend.

"Cleaning," she answered. Still cleaning.

"You hate cleaning,"

"Well, it's better than falling apart isn't it?"

Cole didn't have a chance to answer because at that moment Darryl, who knew about their little secret, was walking over to them with another man close behind him. Paige and Leo were walking a bit after them, looking interested. Darryl spoke first.

"Phoebe, Paige, Victor, sorry about this but Inspector Cortez insisted on meeting today,"

"I just wanted to extend my deepest sympathies," Cortez said, without emotion.

"Thanks," Phoebe and Paige replied together.

"Thank-you," said Victor, suspiciously. He put his arms protectively around Phoebe's shoulders.

Cole and Leo left, knowing that they should.

"Where's Piper?" asked Darryl.

"Upstairs, she's not feeling well," said Phoebe bluntly.

"Understandable, I lost a sister once myself, I know how hard it is. We're going to find the monster that did this to your daughter, Mr Bennett," explained Cortez

"I promise you this," he continued.

Phoebe and Paige looked up at his comment.

"Something I said?" Cortez asked, noticing the gesture.

"No-er-just the word…monster," Paige said hesitantly.

"That's what he was. How else do you describe somebody so vicious? We've got to stop him before he strikes again," he replied.

"I couldn't agree more," Piper said sadly from the stairs.

"Piper, hi, this is Inspector Cortez," explained Darryl again.

"I don't care," she shrugged and walked off.

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_**A/N: Hope you enjoyed this chapter. Please review!**_


	4. Paige's First Charge

_DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN CHARMED OR ANY OF ITS CONTENT._

**_A/N: Chapter 4 everyone! This chapter doesn't have any scenes from the T.V. show. Enjoy!_**

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**Chapter Four-Paige's First Charge**

The three Halliwells, Cole and Leo were in the attic, talking about their plan of action to vanquish Shax.

"Okay-all we have to do is scry for her, then Paige, you can orb us there. Leo, Cole, you guys wait here in case we call Leo's name and then you can both come," Piper explained bossily. Although, she thought she hated the idea of being the oldest, Phoebe and Paige both thought that she was getting quite good at the bossy bit and making up all the plans.

"Then," she continued, "Once we've orbed in, I freeze everything, Paige puts the crystals down, Phoebe throws the potion and then we say the spell together,"

"It's a power of four spell, Piper, it won't work with just the three of us," Phoebe replied.

"And anyway it's too dangerous, you should work on a plan," said Leo.

"Hello! Didn't you just hear me talking? That was the plan Leo," Piper butted in.

"A better plan," Leo added, "One where you don't risk exposure or your lives,"

"Plus," said Phoebe, "You're power isn't really working right now is it? What if you blow her up instead?"

"Well, that's too bad but at least we wouldn't have to say the spell," added Piper, pleased with her comeback.

"But it's too dangerous Piper," argued Phoebe.

"I agree with Phoebe. It's too dangerous, for all of you. And scrying didn't work before, what makes you think it will work this time? If I just went to the underworld, found your demon and vanquished her, then it wouldn't be as dangerous for you girls and Shax will still be dead," Cole volunteered.

"That's too risky for you baby," said Phoebe.

"And we need to avenge Prue's death, not you. Why don't we ask Paige, maybe she'll be on my side? Paige?" Piper debated, turning to look at her youngest sister, who hadn't spoken at all yet.

"Well," she started. Paige too thought that Piper's plan had its risks but she wanted to get Shax's vanquish over and done with. Plus she didn't really want to get on the wrong side of Piper, she was kind of scary at the moment and with her new explosion power, who knew what she would do if Paige didn't agree with her. "Well, I think that we should," suddenly, Paige's hand flew up to her head. "Ouch!"

"What is it?" Phoebe asked, concerned.

"Just that stupid jingling again," she replied.

"Well, ignore it and answer my question," bossed Piper.

"It's not as easy as it sounds, trying to ignore a constant ringing in your head," said Paige moodily.

"The only way to make it stop is to answer your charge's calls. Go and see what they want," Leo informed her.

"No, we need to vanquish Shax," Piper yelled, making Paige jump and hold her head again.

"Piper," moaned Paige, "look, I need to go and take care of my charge and tell her to leave me alone and then I'll come straight back here and we can vanquish Shax. Okay?" she finished but orbed out before Piper could complain.

"Paige!" Piper shouted, annoyed at her youngest sister, "thanks a lot Leo."

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Paige orbed to an alleyway which is where she had sensed her charge and she could see that it led off of quite a busy street.

"Thank God Piper didn't see me almost expose magic," she thought to herself as she looked around for her charge.

"So, where is my charge?" Paige thought again.

All of a sudden, she saw a girl wearing three quarter length grey tracksuit bottoms and a white t-shirt run past the alleyway. She had long, wavy black hair that went way past her shoulders, even though it was in a ponytail. The girl looked about twelve.

"Oi! You! Get back here!" Paige heard a boy shout. Next thing she knew, a gang of about six boys all at least seventeen, ran after the girl.

"Well, I think I may have found my charge," Paige said to herself, as she ran onto the street and started following the gang of boys and the girl who was supposedly her new charge.

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**_A/N: Hope you enjoyed! Next week I won't be updating because I'm going on holiday but I will update as soon as I can. Please review._**


	5. Piper Gets Mad

_DISCLAIMER: I'M NOT GOING TO DO ANYMORE DISCLAIMERS FOR THIS STORY BECAUSE I OBVIOUSLY DON'T OWN CHARMED OR ANY OF ITS CONTENT._

_**A/N: Hi guys! I know it's been a long time since I have updated but my computer got a virus and all my files got deleted so I had to rewrite everything. Plus, I had tons of exams that I had to study for so I was really busy. I know that's not really a good excuse for leaving you guys waiting but here is chapter five! I hope you guys enjoy and thank-you for all the reviews, I really appreciate them!**_

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**Chapter 5-Piper Gets Mad**

Paige gasped and panted for breath as she realized the girl wouldn't stop running from the gang of boys anytime soon and gave herself a mental note to get fitter.

Soon, the girl turned right and Paige sped up as it dawned on her that this was an alleyway. A dead end and the girl - her new charge – would need her help anytime now.

"Hey! Wait," shouted Paige as the last boy turned into the alleyway, ignoring her completely.

She decided that she should wait at the entrance in case her appearance made the boys - and maybe the girl – angry.

All Paige could do was wait as she strained to hear the muttering and talking but to no avail.

All of a sudden, a shot could be heard and then a scream. A girl's scream.

"Oh crap," Paige murmured under her breath. "My charge,"

Without further ado, Paige rushed into the alleyway just in time to see her charge fall to the ground.

"What the hell did you do?" screamed Paige, at the top of her voice, startling the gang, who were standing round the girl's crumpled body.

"Quick boys, run!" yelled the biggest and meanest looking of the bunch who Paige figured was the ring leader.

They did not need telling twice as the all scarpered off in the direction of the main road.

"Cowards," said Paige. "I'll deal with them later,"

Paige heard a whimper and looked down to see the girl on the floor, with blood pouring out of her chest.

"Oh God," Paige started. "Don't worry, you'll be okay," she said to the girl, who was on the brink of death.

Paige gently took her charge's hand, which was worryingly cold and clammy, and orbed off after checking that no one was around.

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Blue and white lights appeared in the living room of the Halliwell Manor and Piper looked up. She was greeted by her youngest sister, Paige, who looked very worried, and a girl who looked strangely familiar.

"Paige? Who's that?" asked Piper, curious.

"No time. Leo! Leo!" Paige said, raising her voice as she called her brother-in-law's name.

There were more blue and white orbs filling the living room as a young man with sandy blonde hair and blue eyes appeared.

"Quick! Heal her!" ordered Paige, dropping to her knees, still holding the girl's hand.

Leo did not need to be asked twice as, he too, dropped to his knees. He placed his hands over the girl's body and a yellow light started to take their place.

"Why is it taking so long?" Paige demanded, looking concerned.

"She almost died Paige," Leo explained, just as concerned, "Who-" he started.

"Paige, kitchen," Piper said angrily.

"But-" she started.

"Now!" Piper yelled, blowing up a vase in the process. Recently, Piper's powers had been acting strangely. She had only got her new power – molecular combustion – a couple of months ago and had never really learnt to control it properly. However, she did know how to use her other power – molecular immobilization – when she wanted to. But, since Prue's death, she had not been able to control either of them and things tended to blow up when she was angry. Piper glared at Paige and a lamp shade exploded into a million tiny pieces.

"Fine," the youngest Halliwell huffed, stomping after her sister. Her charge was still being healed by Leo and she really wanted to be there when she woke up. But, taking to mind Piper's current state, she decided not to risk arguing with the now oldest Charmed One.

Still glaring at Paige, Piper motioned for her to sit down at the island in the middle of the kitchen.

"What?" Paige asked Piper, like a moody teenager.

"You know what, Paige," Piper replied calmly, letting her anger sizzle away.

"No, I do not Piper. I don't know why you brought me here, away from my charge. So, pray tell," she answered, gritting her teeth as she said her favourite phrase.

"Well, let's start with the fact that you brought a mortal here and, not only did you bring her here, but you orbed her here and then expected Leo to heal her. You exposed our magic Paige, our secret. You of all people should know better than that!"

"She was dying Piper!" Paige argued back, getting furious with her sister. "She's our innocent. It's our job to protect her. It's our job to keep her alive!" she continued.

"No Paige," Piper cut in, getting much angrier than before. "She's your innocent. It's your job to protect her. It's your job to keep her alive. We don't have innocents anymore! I thought I had made that clear? Or maybe I should say it just one more time? We are not the Charmed Ones anymore! Okay? We are not protectors of the innocent. Is it in that thick skull of yours yet Paige? I don't care if you still want to save innocents but don't bring them into our home. And don't ask Leo to heal them. Do you understand all of that Paige? Because I am not repeating it!" Piper screamed at her youngest sister, while all the electrical appliances in the kitchen short-circuited, causing them to blow up. This was thanks to Piper's wonderful new power and her temper, of course.

Piper was now out of breath and steam was literally coming out of her ears, she was also bright red in the face.

Paige, on the other hand, was much paler than usual and it seemed as though she was about to cry. She looked at her sister with more hurt in her expression than you could ever imagine.

However, Piper did not feel guilty at all. In fact, she felt pleased that someone had finally given the twenty-one year old a reality check.

Paige was about to reply when the front door slammed shut. Piper, realizing it must be her sister, Phoebe, rushed out of the kitchen to tell her what had just happened.

"Phoebe! Can you believe what Paige did? After so many damn times telling her that we are not the Charmed Ones, she still goes after her bloody innocents and expects-"

"Piper, Phoebe's not here," Leo butted in, stopping Piper in mid-rant.

"Then why the hell did the door just slam shut? Don't tell me it was a demon!" shouted Piper in her husband's face.

"Demons don't usually use the front door Piper," added Paige, with a hint of sarcasm in her voice.

Piper ignored her.

"That was Paige's charge, I just finished healing her and she ran out," Leo explained calmly.

"And she didn't even say thank-you?" muttered Paige under her breath.

Leo looked at her, then at his wife then back to Paige. He didn't want to get involved with their earlier argument but if the girl's life was at stake, then he would have to help them settle their differences. Whether they wanted him to or not. But before he got a chance to do or say anything, Paige orbed off, leaving a trail of blue and white orbs in her place.

"Argh!" yelled Piper, stomping up the stairs.

"Piper-" Leo tried

"Leave me alone!" she screamed in reply. He sighed and orbed off.

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_**A/N: I hope you all liked chapter 5. Don't worry, Piper and Paige will get on more after a few more chapters.**_


	6. Kicking Demon Ass

_**A/N: Chapter 6 everybody! Sorry for such a long wait. Hope you enjoy. Please review.**_

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**Chapter Six-Kicking Demon Ass**

Piper stormed into her room and slammed her bedroom door shut, making the whole of the manor shake. She was furious at Paige, furious that she had brought more magic, yet again, into their lives. No doubt, Paige would insist on looking into the demon that had attacked her charge and being Paige, she would probably need help. And of course, Phoebe, being Phoebe, would happily assist. Leaving Piper to feel left out and leading her to join in with the vanquish. Plus, Leo would need to use memory dust on the girl because they couldn't trust her as she was just a kid. And kids were blabbermouths.

Piper sighed deeply to herself as she got up from her bed and made her way up to the attic. As she got there, she absent-mindedly went towards the Book Of Shadows but stopped in her tracks as she realised she and her two sisters had no idea what they were up against.

Prue would usually be taking charge right about now, bossing her, Paige and Phoebe about and telling them what to do. They all used to complain but Piper really wished Prue was here right now, knocking some sense into Paige's head.

Piper didn't see why Paige wanted to carry on with magic. A demon had killed their mom and now, a demon had killed their sister.

"Evil can't get away with this," Piper muttered under her breath.

She was determined to kill Prue's murderer and she was willing to vanquish any demon that got in her way. Piper changed the direction she was heading in and instead made her way to the trunk that all their other magical belongings were kept.

The trunk opened with a loud creak and Piper took out a map of San Francisco and a crystal so she could scry.

Scrying for Shax specifically may not have worked but Piper's theory was that if she just scryed for evil, then she may find her.

And if that didn't work, she could always torture other demons until they told her where Shax was hiding.

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"Piper? Paige?" a voice called from downstairs as the door slammed shut.

"In the attic, Pheebs," Piper yelled back to her other sister. She had completely forgotten about being mad at Paige and was just determined at finding and vanquishing evil.

How hard could it be?

There was tons of evil wandering the streets of San Francisco.

"Did a demon attack?" Phoebe asked, looking worried and slightly annoyed that neither Piper nor Paige had phoned her.

"No," Piper replied, staring furiously at the map and slightly swinging the crystal over it.

"Who are you scrying for then? Paige?" Cole asked. He knew Paige had a tendency to orb off. But he wasn't complaining, Paige didn't trust him and hated the sight of him. She always had an excuse to bad mouth him.

"I'm scrying for evil," she said back without looking up so she didn't break her concentration.

"Piper, San Francisco is filled with evil," Phoebe stated.

"And what are you planning to do once you find evil?" Cole added.

"Vanquish it of course," Piper replied, as the crystal dropped onto the map. "Ah-ha!" she said triumphantly. "You guys coming?"

Phoebe trudged after Piper reluctantly. She really didn't know what had gotten into her sister but whatever it was; she couldn't let Piper face the demon alone.

"Cole?" Phoebe asked, turning around when she noticed her boyfriend hadn't moved yet.

"Do I have a choice?" he asked, flashing a cheeky grin at Phoebe.

She smiled back and held his hand in hers.

* * *

"Cole!" Phoebe screamed, "Piper! You could have killed him!" she continued as she ran over to her boyfriend who had just been thrown against a wall.

Piper had frozen Cole by accident then blown up a wall so she could vanquish a demon. Unfortunately, she had completely forgotten about the frozen Cole which was why he had got thrown across an alleyway in result to Piper's wonderful power.

"Sorry. You know my powers have been a little…off lately," Piper replied meekly.

"I know and so do you. So why risk using your powers? Especially on Cole!" Phoebe yelled, helping Cole up. "Are you okay, sweetie?"

"I'm sorry," she muttered angrily. All the demons had been vanquished when Piper had blown up the wall so she was heading back to her car which was now covered in green demon goo.

"Whatever," replied Phoebe, moodily. She and Cole walked over to the car and got in. Piper drove off without looking at either of them.

"Go back to the manor," ordered Phoebe, she was sick and tired of chasing after demons and vanquishing them.

"What? What about all the demons?" Piper argued.

"They won't leave," Cole cut in. He was also fed up of having to keep using his demonic powers, he wanted to try and stop using them.

"Fine," Piper gave in, turning the car around and heading back to the manor.

* * *

"Don't be too hard on him Cole, it's not Leo's fault Piper's acting like this," Phoebe explained.

"Okay, okay," Cole said, giving in.

"Good. Leo!" Phoebe yelled loudly, calling her Whitelighter and brother-in-law's name. Leo orbed in, in a swirl of blue and white orbs.

"What's the problem?" he asked, looking slightly concerned. Leo wasn't too worried about demonic problems, they didn't have those anymore but it could have been any kind of problem and Phoebe looked troubled.

"Your damn wife is the problem!" Cole yelled angrily, forgetting what he had promised Phoebe.

"Cole!" warned Phoebe, rubbing his shoulder to get him to calm down.

"What about my wife?" Leo asked, getting annoyed.

"She's very angry," Phoebe explained softly.

"Of course she's angry, she's grieving," Leo argued.

"Yes and if she were punching walls it would be fine but Leo, she prefers to punch demons," Phoebe replied.

"She's out of control. Vanquishing any demon she comes across without knowing anything about it. She's like Charles Bronson cubed. She's putting Phoebe's life in danger and doesn't respect her own life. You need to do something about her," Cole ranted.

"Cole, please calm down," Phoebe begged. She didn't want Piper to hear that they were talking about her. "Who's Charles Bronson?"

"Erm…" Leo started.

"Never mind," Phoebe cut in.

"Hi guys!" said Paige as she orbed in.

Phoebe jumped at the sound of her sister.

"Paige, do you mind?" Phoebe asked after she had turned around.

"Sorry, I didn't realise you guys were arguing. Where's Piper?" Paige apologised. She looked around the room for her eldest sister but she wasn't there. Paige really didn't feel like talking to Piper because she was probably mad at her for orbing off.

"Upstairs and we weren't arguing. We were discussing," Phoebe answered.

"Discussing what?" Paige asked, curious.

"Piper's carelessness," cut in Cole before Phoebe could answer.

"Really? What's she done?" Paige replied.

"She has no respect for her life," Cole muttered. "Going after and vanquishing demons with no knowledge of how powerful they are," Cole continued, enjoying his rant.

"The hypocrite," Paige murmured, annoyed.

Just this morning, Piper had yelled at Paige for involving them in magic and now, Piper was vanquishing demons left, right and centre.

"I said I'd talk to her," insisted Leo, he orbed out, probably to talk to Piper.

"He'd better," Cole said.

* * *

**_A/N: I'm not going to be updating my other story, Charmed Together, until I have finished Destinies so if you want me to update Charmed Together quickly, please review this story as it will inspire me to write quicker. Thanks!_**


	7. Finding Joanne Lacey

**Chapter Seven-Finding Joanne Lacey**

_**A/N: Hi guys, chapter 7 here. I would like to dedicate this chapter to a trusty reviewer, Thalia's Tree who has been giving me reviews since I started Destinies. Hope you enjoy this chapter.**_

The next morning, Piper, Paige, Phoebe, Cole and Leo were standing in the attic around the Book Of Shadows, discussing what their next move for vanquishing Shax was.

Piper's theory that demos would spill the beans of Shax's whereabouts under torture was completely wrong and Piper had decided to stop going after them once Leo had talked to her.

"Piper, we're never going to find Shax like this," Paige complained for the umpteenth time.

"Be quiet Paige, unless you have a better idea. And if you do, feel free to share it with us," Piper snapped.

Phoebe was writing a summoning spell, Paige was looking through The Book and Piper was scrying.

"Piper, stop being so mean to Paige," Phoebe said, trying to keep the peace between her older and younger sister.

"I'm not being mean, Phoebe. I'm just fed up with Paige's whining," Piper explained.

"Yes but Piper, she's right, we're not going to find Shax this way," Phoebe argued back.

"Guys-" Paige started quietly.

"Phoebe, I don't want to have an argument with you but no one else has got any ideas!" Piper yelled. "I'm trying my best here!"

"Guys-" Paige, repeated, getting impatient.

"I know you are Piper. And Paige and I appreciate it but maybe – maybe we should have a break from Shax, it's getting us nowhere," Phoebe replied calmly, not wanting to fight with Piper.

"Guys! I have an idea!" Paige almost screamed.

"Not now Paige!" Piper shouted back, not really hearing what Paige had said.

"Piper, maybe you should listen to Paige. She has an idea," Cole said, causing Paige to look at him, shocked. Cole never said anything nice about Paige, especially if it meant going against one of her sisters.

"Fine. Sorry Paige, go ahead," Piper responded apologetically, indicating that Paige could talk.

"Thank-you," sighed Paige, gratefully. "So, I was thinking, no matter what we do or how hard we try, Shax is nowhere. It's like she's completely disappeared,"

"What's your point Paige? All you've done so far is state facts," Piper interrupted.

"Let her talk, Piper," Leo said. Piper shot an evil look at him.

"Well, maybe we're going about this the wrong way," Paige continued, thinking she was making sense.

"What exactly are you proposing Paige?" Phoebe asked, feeling that Paige wasn't making sense.

"She's proposing that I go down to the Underworld and personally ask The Source where his hit woman is hiding!" Cole yelled. He was regretting telling Phoebe and Piper to listen to Paige.

"Cole, don't be stupid, I'm sure Paige wasn't proposing that," Leo cut in, trying to keep the peace.

"I'm not proposing anything!" Paige replied, getting annoyed. "I haven't even finished talking yet,"

"Okay, keep going," Phoebe said in a bored voice. She didn't really see Paige's point.

"Well, instead of looking for Shax, maybe we should be looking for Joanne Lacey, her human form," Paige explained.

"That's brilliant! Paige. Orb. Darryl. Now," Piper ordered.

"So, do you think you can find her?" Paige asked Darryl politely. He nodded in reply.

"Good. How soon?" Piper said, eager to get her hands on Prue's murderer and get revenge.

"Piper!" Paige warned, "He's trying his best,"

Darryl smiled and sat down at his desk, his hands on the keyboard, ready to type.

"What did you say her name was again?" Darryl asked.

"Joanne Lacey," Piper answered slowly, making sure the Inspector got it right.

"Okay. It's quite a common first name but the surname is unusual. Plus, taking into account you don't know anything about her apart from her shoulder length blonde hair and brown eyes, I would say I should be able to find her in a couple of hours. I'll call you if I find something," Darryl explained.

"Thank-you," Paige said, grateful that they finally had something to go on to find Shax. She took Piper's hand and dragged her away from the desk so Darryl could get some peace.

"Thanks Darryl," Piper agreed quickly. "Paige, you are such a genius! I don't know why I didn't think of this," Piper said sweetly as Paige found somewhere quiet.

Once the last person had turned the corner, Paige orbed herself and her sister back to the Manor where they could explain their plan.

As they orbed into the attic, Phoebe rushed up to them, fuming.

"Where did you go?" she demanded angrily.

"The police station," Paige replied, letting go of Piper and putting her arm around Phoebe. She shrugged her off, still annoyed at her older and younger sisters.

"I know that. Why didn't you tell me? I thought you had done something stupid and was worried until Leo told me you were fine," the angry Halliwell yelled.

"Well sorry but you seemed completely bored when I suggested it so I thought you would appreciate us leaving you with your demon boyfriend!" Paige screamed back, equally angry.

"He's not here, dimwit!" Phoebe shrieked.

"Stop fighting you two!" Piper shouted at her two younger sisters. "We need to work together. Don't you get it? This is exactly what The Source wants; he wants us to fall apart, to become vulnerable. So he can attack. We can't let him win,"

"Sorry Piper, sorry Phoebe," said Paige, feeling ashamed at her behaviour.

"I'm sorry for freaking out guys. Do you have a plan?" Phoebe added, closing The Book and walking over to her sisters.

"Yes," Piper sighed. "It's a long shot but it's all we have. Hopefully, it will work,"

Leo and Phoebe nodded but Leo suddenly heard a jingle in his head and looked up to the ceiling. "Now?" he asked the Elders. There was another jingle in his head. "Sorry guys," he said, giving the rest of the group an apologetic look. "They said it's urgent,"

Piper frowned. "They always say it's urgent,"

Leo gave her a pleading look and Piper, knowing he would go anyway, nodded slightly.

"Just go, Leo. We'll call you if we hear anything from Darryl," Piper said. Leo looked grateful that his wife had understood and orbed out in a swirl of blue and white lights.

Phoebe however, looked confused. "Darryl?" she asked.

"Yes Phoebe, Darryl. We asked him if he could find Joanne Lacey so we could go to her and kill her," Piper explained.

"Don't you mean vanquish?" said a worried-looking Paige.

"Vanquish, kill, same difference. My point is, this way we can take Shax by surprise and vanquish her easier," Piper concluded.

Phoebe still looked confused. "But the vanquishing spell is a Power Of Four spell, it won't work," she pointed out.

"It has to work," Paige sighed.

All three sisters looked at each other in silence. The doorbell rang suddenly and Phoebe, who was the closest to the window, peered out to see who it was.

"It's Darryl," Phoebe stated, turning back to her sisters.

"Already? That was fast," Paige exclaimed, taking Phoebe and Piper's hands. She orbed them downstairs and Piper opened the door.

"Hi Darryl," she said, giving him a sweet smile.

"Hi Piper, Phoebe, Paige," Darryl started, nodding at each Halliwell in turn. "I found your demon," Darryl answered.

"Really? Thank-you Darryl!" Paige squealed, hugging the inspector.

"Yes, I found her. Joanne Lacey. Here's the address, it's an apartment building on Fifth Avenue. Shouldn't be too hard to find. I checked her work details out and she hasn't gone in for this week so she should be at home," Darryl explained, handing Piper the address.

"Thanks again Darryl, we really appreciate this," Piper answered.

"Just be careful," Darryl turned to Phoebe, who he thought was most responsible. "Look after them," he added, exiting the Manor.

Piper closed the door. "Right, Paige, go and get the crystals, Phoebe, the spell and I will sort out the potion which will hopefully weaken Shax enough for the spell to do its job,"

After about 20 minutes, all three Halliwells had done what they were assigned to do by Piper. Paige took both her sisters' hands and orbed to just outside the demon's apartment.

They had called for Leo earlier but with no reply so they had left without him, much to Piper's dismay. She just hoped that if any of them got hurt, Leo would come and heal them, wherever he was.

_**A/N: I hope everybody enjoyed this chapter. This is where the action starts to happen because all the other chapters were just from the TV show to set the scene. Please review!**_


	8. Familiar Faces

**Chapter Eight – Familiar Faces**

_**A/N: So, they are finally coming face to face with Shax. I wonder what will happen? Read on to find out. I had to make Shax a woman because it fit better with the rest of the storyline but in the show it never actually specified if Shax was a male or female but I'm guessing he was a male. Anyway, please review.**_

"Paige! Someone could have seen us. What are you doing?" Phoebe scolded, letting go of Paige's hand and walking up to apartment 6B.

"I did sense if anyone was here first Pheebs, I'm not that stupid," Paige replied, annoyed that Phoebe thought she was that careless.

Phoebe still didn't seem convinced but let the topic go, she didn't really think this was the right time to get into an argument for no reason.

Phoebe went to knock on the door of the apartment.

"Phoebe, what are you doing?" Piper hissed, grabbing her sister's arm and pulling her back.

"Relax Piper, I'm just knocking on the door," Phoebe answered, slightly weirded out by Piper's sudden change of attitude. Just a few moments ago, Piper had been keen to get revenge on the demon that had killed their sister.

"Yeah, that'll really surprise Shax," Paige said sarcastically. Piper hit her on the arm lightly, to make her be quiet.

"Well what were you planning to do Piper?" asked Phoebe. "Blow the door up?"

"Yes, actually that was exactly what I was planning to do. I just want to get this over and done with. Catch her by surprise, throw the potion, say the spell and get out of here," Piper said truthfully.

"We can't just do that Piper. What if this Joanne Lacey isn't the right Joanne Lacey?" Phoebe questioned. Paige nodded in agreement. It would definitely be hard to explain to a random woman how her door had just exploded off its hinges.

"You don't actually believe that Shax will just open the door for us and invite us in for a cup of tea, do you?" remarked Piper with a hint of sarcasm.

"Yeah, she can probably sense us here, or at least hear us. We've been standing outside her apartment for the last five minutes," Paige added.

Phoebe ignored them both and Piper rolled her eyes, realising that there was no point trying to stop her sister doing what she wanted to do.

As Phoebe knocked on the door, Paige lifted the potion into a throwing position.

There was no answer.

"This is ridiculous," Piper muttered under her breath, moving Phoebe out of the way and putting both her hands up in front of her face. Paige, knowing what she was about to do, stepped back a little.

Piper flicked her hands and all of a sudden, the door of apartment 6B, exploded into a million tiny pieces of wood. Paige orbed out. She hadn't been able to control when she orbed since Prue had died. She could orb when and where she wished but, sometimes if she got scared or jumped, she would orb out against her will.

"Piper!" Phoebe moaned, covering her face with her arms to stop anything getting in her eyes. Paige orbed back in, in the same place she had orbed out.

Luckily, none of the other residents in the building had come out to inspect the noise.

Piper, Paige and Phoebe stepped into the apartment.

"I knew you would come," said a voice belonging to a petite blonde woman with chestnut brown eyes. Shax.

The three Halliwell sisters glared at the demon. Suddenly, footsteps could be heard coming from the other room.

"Mom, what was that explosion? Are you alright?" a girl wearing dark blue jeans and a purple shirt walked into the living room, where all the others were standing. She had raven coloured hair and emerald green eyes.

Paige took a second look at the girl standing before them and a horrible realisation dawned on her.

This was her charge. The girl she had saved from those boys. The girl Leo had healed after she had been shot. And she was a demon.

"Mom?" Piper demanded, confused. She had just realised who this girl was and she was furious.

"You?" Paige asked, taken aback and wounded. She had saved the life of a demon. The demon who was the daughter of her sister's murderer.

"Who?" Phoebe questioned, completely unaware of whom the girl was. She had been at work when Leo had healed her.

Paige was in shock but as it wore off; she took action and threw their only potion at her charge.

Suddenly, the girl was in the familiar swirl of blue and white orbs and a couple of seconds later, she was back, standing in the same place and completely flabbergasted at what had just happened.

"Paige! What are you doing? That was our only potion!" yelled Phoebe.

Joanne Lacey looked furious that Paige had thrown the potion at her child and not at all fazed that her demon daughter could orb, a power that only whitelighters possessed.

The Charmed Ones, on the other hand, were completely shocked for many reasons. The first being that Paige's charge, the one Leo had healed, was the daughter of Prue's murderer. The second being that that same demon child had orbed in and out of the room in the same blue and white lights that surrounded all other whitelighters.

Another thing that shocked them was the fact that this girl seemed completely astounded at what she had done and obviously hadn't expected it.

All three of them were still trying to get their heads around the recent events that they hadn't noticed Joanne Lacey change into her demon form.

Her daughter, however, had and once again, seemed completely shaken at what her mother had turned into.

"How dare you!" Joanne Lacey shrieked, throwing her arm out and flinging Paige across the room with her demonic power of aerokinesis.

"Paige! No!" Piper screamed, throwing her hands up in front of her face, ready to blow the demon up.

"Piper! The spell, say the spell," Phoebe shouted. The two of them chanted the familiar incantation out together;

"_Evil wind that blows,_

_That which forms below._

_No longer may you dwell,_

_Death takes you with this spell!" _

Shax screamed in pain and whirled out in a gust of wind.

Behind them, they heard a crash.

_**A/N: Please review and I will update as soon as I can. Thanks! Was Shax being a woman okay? I hope you all understand why that change needed to be made in my story.**_


	9. Great Explanations

**Chapter Nine – Great Explanations**

_**A/N: I know I only updated yesterday or something but I couldn't type fast enough with this chapter and suddenly, it was finished and now my hands ache. Please don't expect me to update every day maybe not even that regularly but I got loads of reviews which I am grateful for and they made me want to update. Hope you enjoy this chapter. Thalia's Tree gave me the idea of adding a particular person in so thank-you to her. And a big thank-you to all my reviewers as well. The title is a play on the book 'Great Expectations'. **_

The two Halliwells quickly turned around and Phoebe gasped.

"Inspector Cortez?" Piper glared at him, threateningly. She realised that he had just witnessed them and Shax using powers. Not to mention her and Phoebe wounding somebody. Well, of course, Piper and Phoebe knew that Shax deserved it but how was the Inspector to know that?

Phoebe slowly looked down to see what the source of the crash had been and to her horror, saw a video camera. And lying next to it was a cassette tape which had been half used up. It didn't take Phoebe long to realise what was on the cassette tape.

"Piper, freeze him," Phoebe ordered, slowly walking over to Paige. Inspector Cortez had a sly smile on his face because he had just found out the Halliwells' secret that oh, so many reporters had tried to find out.

"What if I blow him up, Phoebe?" Piper said, completely rooted to the spot as she realised that the hell that they had gone through not that many months ago was happening all over again.

"Well, I'll be damned," he said slowly, looking from Piper to Phoebe to Paige who was lying on the floor to her charge who had tear stains down her face.

"Piper, just do it," Phoebe insisted, checking Paige's neck to see if she had a pulse. She did, but it was very faint. "Leo," she called softly.

"I knew you were keeping a secret. But this, I did not expect. Does Morris know about this? I bet he does. That's why he's always covering for you isn't it?" he questioned, smirking slightly and walking cautiously towards Piper.

He was scared, petrified actually, but he wasn't going to look weak against these women. He had all the evidence he needed to bust their asses and Morris' as well and he was happy.

"Piper, hurry up," Phoebe pressured her sister, wishing she would just freeze the Inspector already so that Leo could orb in and heal Paige. Inspector Cortez had seen enough magic; he didn't need to see anymore.

Piper, finally coming out of her trance, whipped her hands up quickly and flicked her wrists. Instantly, Inspector Cortez froze.

Piper rushed over to Paige's limp body. "Leo! Leo. Get your ass down here Leo. Paige needs healing," Piper yelled, looking up to the ceiling, hoping that she would see the familiar blue and white orbs of her husband.

Nothing happened.

Paige's charge stood up quietly and crept up behind Piper and Phoebe who hadn't noticed her. She raised her hands up in front of her face and suddenly noticed that her hands were glowing yellow. She gasped.

Piper, hearing the gasp shot her head around and saw the demon daughter behind them, she shoved her out of the way and quickly flicked her wrists.

Nothing happened. Phoebe, had also turned around and was shocked that nothing had happened when Piper had moved her hands; "Why didn't she blow up?" she asked her sister.

"I wasn't trying to blow her up, I was trying to freeze her but nothing happened," Piper replied, annoyed.

"Try again,"

Piper flicked her wrists but again, nothing happened. Then Phoebe noticed the girl's hands glowing. She rushed up to her and dragged her toward Paige's body.

"Phoebe! What are you doing?" exclaimed Piper, who hadn't noticed the glowing of the girl's hands.

"Look at her hands Piper," Phoebe ordered, pulling the girl's hands over Paige. After about a minute, Paige woke up and gasped for air. She screamed when she saw her charge who she knew was a demon, lent over her.

"You have got some explaining to do, lady," Piper instructed, grabbing the girl's arm tightly.

"Ouch!" she cried, trying to get out of her grip.

"What about Inspector Cortez?" Phoebe asked.

"When did he get here," Paige asked. Piper flicked her wrists and the cassette tape blew up.

"Paige, can you orb us home," Piper asked.

"Sure," Paige put one hand on the Inspector's shoulder and with the other hand, held Phoebe's hand, who was holding Piper's hand, who was still gripping onto Shax's daughter's arm and orbed away.

The five people arrived at the Manor in swirl of blue and white lights. Inspector Cortez was still frozen and Piper still held Paige's charge tightly so she wouldn't try anything stupid.

A couple of seconds later, Leo orbed in. Piper looked furiously at him and tightened her grip on the girl out of anger.

"Oh. So _now _you show up?" she demanded. A lamp blew up and Paige's charge flinched. She had no idea where she was and she just wanted to know if her mom was okay.

"The Elders wouldn't let me come down," Leo explained.

"Why not?" Piper questioned, suspiciously.

"I don't know Piper. They just said that you all needed to find out your new destiny,"

"And what might that be?" Paige asked, curious.

"I have no idea,"

"Don't act dumb Leo, I know you know. You're just not going to tell us because you know we don't want to do this destiny thing anymore," Piper replied.

"Piper," Leo started.

"Don't Piper me! Unless you have a perfectly good explanation as to why you didn't come down when we needed you to heal Paige, leave," Piper demanded.

"What? How did I get here?" Inspector Cortez asked. He was very disorientated and felt slightly queasy from orbing.

"Shut up!" Piper yelled in reply. She was mad at Leo and she didn't want the Inspector to interrupt her rant.

"What are you people?" Cortez stuttered.

"Witches," Phoebe replied with a smile.

"Leo!" Piper screamed as she noticed Leo was about to orb out. "Don't go orbing out on me, Mister. You still have some explaining to do,"

"Look, Piper. Maybe you should just take care of Inspector Cortez," Leo started. Piper was about to interrupt. "Then," he added quickly. "I will answer all your questions truthfully. Okay?"

All three of his charges nodded in agreement.

"Do you have any of that memory dust?" asked Paige.

"We won't need it, Paige. He is literally too scared to speak and even if he could tell someone what he saw, who would believe him? Darryl can sort him out and keep him under control," Phoebe concluded.

"You are lucky I am so pissed at my husband Cortez. If I didn't want answers, you wouldn't be leaving here alive. And if you tell _anyone _about us, we _will_ vanquish you, just like we did to that thing you saw. Understand?" Piper warned, glaring at the Inspector. He nodded and quickly rushed out, knocking over a chair in the process.

"That was a bit harsh wasn't it?" Phoebe asked. Piper shrugged. Maybe it was but they needed him to be scared enough not to blab. They hadn't actually vanquished Shax but how was he supposed to know that?

"Okay Leo, your turn," Piper said.

"Fire away but just let me ask, what are you going to do about her?" Leo asked, gesturing towards Paige's charge.

"Paige, if you could do the honours of getting the crystals," Piper bossed. Paige nodded.

"Crystals. Circle," Paige said and five crystals orbed down from the attic and formed a circle around the raven-haired girl. "Where's your mom? Where is Shax hiding?" Paige demanded, angrily.

"I don't know," the girl answered. Paige wasn't pleased with the answer and threw a potion into the circle. The girl screamed in pain.

"I said, where is Shax?" Paige asked again.

"I said, I don't know!" the girl replied. Paige threw another potion into the circle. Her charge screamed in pain again, tears were running down her face. Paige was about to throw another one but Piper and Phoebe grabbed hold of her before she was able to.

"Paige calm down. You're hurting her," Phoebe ordered.

"Why should I calm down Phoebe? She's a demon! We should have vanquished her already but we want answers so we can't," Paige replied.

"Why don't we start with an easier question? And lay off on the potions Paige, she's innocent until proven guilty," Phoebe soothed.

"How? How is she innocent? She is the offspring of Prue's killer! Of Shax," Paige yelled angrily.

"My name is Paris and I'm _not _a demon," she interrupted.

"That's what they all say! _I'm_ not a demon, don't vanquish me," Paige mocked.

"Well, I'm not!" Paris insisted.

"You don't actually think we believe you, do you, Paris?" Paige spat.

"Guys, calm down. Leo, can you please explain why the Elders made Paige's first charge a demon?" Piper asked, trying to get some answers.

"She needs to be saved," Leo answered, trying to be as vague as possible.

"Thanks Leo that explains _everything_!" Paige replied sarcastically.

"Oi! Lay off the sarcasm, only I can talk to him like that," Piper said to Paige. "Thanks Leo, that explains _everything_," Piper repeated. "Why does she need to be saved? From what?"

"Think about it Piper, what are her powers? I mean, she saved Paige," Leo reasoned.

"Only because Phoebe literally dragged her towards Paige when her hands lit up," Piper argued.

"That's not the point Piper. Healing is a whitelighter's power. And so is orbing. She orbed as well, even if she hadn't expected it. Somehow, she got those powers," Phoebe pointed out.

"So you're saying she stole them? From another whitelighter, I mean?" Paige asked.

"I have a feeling Leo knows the answer to that," Phoebe replied. Piper nodded and the three Halliwells looked at their whitelighter expecting answers.

Leo finally gave in, knowing they would get it out of him eventually.

"Okay," he started. "This girl, Paris, is a whitelighter. _But_, she doesn't know because in her past life, she had done many good deeds, however she was too young to become a proper whitelighter. So, instead of her returning to Earth after she died, she was reborn, into another person. A completely different person. Paris won't remember anything about her past life,"

"Can they do that?" Paige interrupted.

"They don't usually do it but it is possible," Leo replied.

"That is so cool," Paige added.

"Anyway, as I was saying, she doesn't remember anything. However, the Elders still felt that she should become a whitelighter when she was ready. So they gave her the powers but bound them and returned her to Earth as nothing more than an unfertilised egg,"

"I still don't understand where we come into this," Piper said.

"Let him finish, this is getting interesting," Paige ordered, hushing her sister.

"Unfortunately, her parents couldn't look after her when she was born so they abandoned her, in a phone box. This gave the Source an idea. If he could take a whitelighter and raise her as evil, he could rule Up There as well as the Underworld. So he got his right hand man – or should I say, woman – to take her in and raise her as her own,"

"This is where we come in, isn't it?" Phoebe asked, excitedly.

"Yes, the Elders luckily found out about it and now they need you three to train her as a good whitelighter. Paige, you will teach her the basic whitelighter powers of orbing and glamouring as those are your powers, I will teach her the others. Phoebe, the Elders also want her to learn basic witchcraft, so you will teach her how to write spells and Piper you can teach her how to make a good potion. The Elders would also like you to try to help her remember her past as it may encourage her to become good once again. That's why I couldn't come when you called, you needed to see Paris' powers,"

"I think I understand all that Leo but how are we supposed to make her remember her past life? It was difficult enough for me to _be _my past life, let alone remember it," Phoebe inquired.

"Just try," Leo said.

"Right. Do you remember anything, anything at all about a life you may have lived before, Paris?" Phoebe asked. There was no answer.

"Paris?" Phoebe repeated and all four of them turned around.

"You've got to be kidding me!" Piper yelled angrily as she saw the circle of crystals was empty.

"Where'd she go?" Paige wondered out loud.

_**A/N: This is a much longer chapter than usual but I really needed to explain a few things. If you don't understand something or you are unsure about anything, PM me and I will try and explain it as best I can. Please review. **_


	10. At The Police Station

**Chapter Ten – At The Police Station**

_**A/N: This chapter goes back in time slightly to just before Paris left and Leo explained everything about her past so she still doesn't know what she is. I've decided to do it first person, just to see how it works out. Thank-you for all the great reviews. In answer to Guest: "**__**One thing I didn't really understand is why Paris didn't freeze at the beginning of the chapter when Piper tried to freeze her even though she is a white lighter? White lighters do freeze right? I'm sure you had a perfectly good reason for this but it would be helpful if you could explain it please.", the answer to this question will be revealed in the next few chapters. **__**Please review this chapter!**_

As Paige threw another vial at me, my body felt as if it was on fire and I screamed in pain. I couldn't stop the tears from falling. I couldn't believe that this woman, Paige, was the same woman who had scared off those boys and saved my life not that long ago.

Piper and her sister grabbed hold of Paige's arms to stop her from throwing another vial and I smiled gratefully at them. I don't think they saw it though.

"Paige calm down. You're hurting her," the other sister ordered.

"Why should I calm down Phoebe? She's a demon! We should have vanquished her already but we want answers so we can't," Paige replied. I knew what a demon was and I winced as Paige said it. They may not trust me but it didn't make me a demon.

"Why don't we start with an easier question? And lay off on the potions Paige, she's innocent until proven guilty," Phoebe soothed. I was really starting to like Phoebe. I sniffed in appreciation and wiped the tears from my cheeks.

"How? How is she innocent? She is the offspring of Prue's killer! Of Shax," Paige yelled angrily. Ouch. That hurt. I had no idea what Shax was but I guessed she was talking about mom. That wasn't fair, I had no idea what mom was – at least, I hadn't known until about an hour ago. It hurt a lot to see my mom like that but it hurt even more to know that these three women had killed her.

"My name is Paris and I'm _not _a demon," I interrupted, sick and tired of them calling me 'her'.

"That's what they all say! _I'm_ not a demon, don't vanquish me," Paige mocked. Okay, I was really starting to get annoyed now.

"Well, I'm not!" I insisted, making sure Paige understood. I really didn't want them vanquishing me.

"You don't actually think we believe you, do you, Paris?" Paige spat.

"Guys, calm down. Leo, can you please explain why the Elders made Paige's first charge a demon?" Piper asked, trying to get some answers. I actually wanted some answers as well.

"She needs to be saved," Leo answered, obviously trying to be as vague as possible. I saw him edge closer towards the circle of crystals trapping me here.

"Thanks Leo that explains _everything_!" Paige replied sarcastically. Leo subtly knocked one of the crystals out of the circle, meaning I could get away.

"Oi! Lay off the sarcasm, only I can talk to him like that," Piper said to Paige.

I slowly made my way towards the doorway of the living room and quickly but quietly exited. "Thanks Leo, that explains _everything_," I heard Piper repeat, just as sarcastically. I was out of the door now and they hadn't noticed that I had gone yet. As I stepped out of the house, there was a gust of cold air. I wish they had let me get a jacket before 'orbing' me out. Whatever _that _was. I slowly closed the door and let it shut softly.

My feet were hurting. I had been walking for what felt like hours but when I checked my watch, had actually only been ten minutes. I was cold, I was hungry, I was tired and I was lost. But I knew what I needed to do. I needed to get to the police station. Tell them about Piper, Phoebe and Paige and what they were. Now all I needed was directions.

I saw an elderly couple walking on the sidewalk opposite me and quickly crossed the road to approach them.

"Excuse me, could you tell me how to get to the police station, please?" I asked in my best voice.

"Oh well, of course dear, but what's such a young girl doing that involves her going to the police? You're not in trouble dear are you?" the woman asked nosily. Like I was going to tell her. But I just smiled sweetly and replied;

"I'm not that young, I'm fourteen. And no, I'm not in trouble, I just need to talk to one of the Inspectors there but thanks for asking," She really didn't deserve a thank-you but I thought I should be polite.

"Which Inspector?" the woman asked. God, she was getting on my nerves. I just wanted directions.

"Leave her be, Edith," the man answered, resting his hand on his wife's shoulder to shut her up. "See this road, dear?" I nodded. "Well, just keep going down this way, turn right, keep walking and you will eventually see the station," he concluded. "You got all that, dear?" he checked. I nodded.

"Yes, thank-you very much," I added quickly turning away from them and starting to walk on.

"You're very welcome dearie, anytime," the old bat answered. I hadn't actually been talking to her but never mind.

After about another five minutes, I came across what I guessed was the police station. There weren't lots of police cars and cops around so I made my way to the entrance. A big bulky man, who I think was the boss or something, came and blocked my path so I couldn't go any further.

"No kids allowed," the man said in a husky voice.

"I'm not a kid and I need to speak with Inspector Cortez, it's urgent," I explained, hoping he would understand its urgency and let me pass.

He grumbled to himself. "Wait here," he ordered and walked away.

I took the time to notice my surroundings. There were several images of past and current cops and inspectors that did or had worked at San Francisco Police Department. There were also lots of pictures of criminals that had been convicted and criminals that were wanted for things such as murder, theft and forgery.

The same man came back and looked me up and down. It was very intimidating and I felt very self-conscious.

"The inspector you requested is out on police business right now but you can talk to his partner, Inspector Morris," he explained.

"Thank-you, that would be okay," I replied. It would, I didn't actually need to tell Inspector Cortez because he already knew so telling his partner would probably be better anyway. That way, if Inspector Cortez did decide to tell Morris the Halliwells' secret, he would believe him more because I had already reported it.

"Right then. Morris, this young lady wants to talk to you," he concluded, shoving me towards a desk. An African-American man, stood there holding a phone to his ear.

"I'm going to have to call you back," Inspector Morris said into the phone and he placed it down carefully. He looked at me, motioning for me to explain what I wanted to talk to him about.

"I know the Halliwells' secret," I said bluntly. Morris looked shocked and shuffled me into an empty office. He shut the door softly and stared in anger.

"Why do you have to go shouting that out to everyone in the station?" he asked, furious.

"What do you mean? What does it matter if the cops know that I know about their secret? I can help you; I can get rid of them for good.

"Listen here lady, I know you are quite young and probably don't know the proper difference between good and bad, right and wrong but the Halliwells, they are something special. They risk their lives every day to save the asses of people that they don't even know. Gee, one of them _died _trying to protect an innocent man from being killed. And I don't care if you want to get rid of them because I promise you, I will stop you," Inspector Morris said firmly. How dare he? How dare he say that those _things _are good? They killed my mom, for God's sakes! But the thing I was most shocked about was; how did he know? Did they tell him? Or did Inspector Cortez already open up and say good things about them?

"You know?" I asked, bewildered.

"Yeah, found out a couple of years ago, been covering for them ever since. How did you find out?"

"They all showed up at our apartment, apparently mom had been expecting them. And – and they killed her, with an incantation or some sort," I stammered, trying hard to keep back the tears.

"Joanne Lacey? As in, the demon that killed Prue? That's your mom?" it was his turn to be shocked now as he tried to comfort me. Tears were now falling and I didn't have the energy to stop them. My mom was gone.

"Listen," Darryl paused.

"Paris," I added.

"Listen Paris, the only reason they would have vanquished your mom is if she was a demon. And she was. I'm sorry Paris. Why don't you come with me to South Bay Social Services and we can put you in temporary foster care?"

"What are you going to tell them?"

"Excuse me?

"The other cops? And the social workers? What are you going to tell them? You can't very well go and say the truth. Like they would believe you anyway. 'Hey, can you put Paris here in temporary foster care because three witches vanquished her mom?' they'd think you were crazy," I explained.

Morris smiled. "Why the sudden change of heart?"

"I think I understand now. My mom was a demon; she had killed many innocent people, including the Halliwells' sister. They had needed to vanquish her, they weren't just driven by revenge, my mom was dangerous," I answered truthfully. It hurt to know that my mom was never coming back but at least the world could be a slightly safer place.

"That may be true but she still loved you, you know," the inspector added.

"I know," I replied. "Inspector Morris,"

"Yes, Paris," he answered opening the door a crack.

"Your partner was there, when the sisters exposed their magic. They threatened him but I don't think he'll stay quiet long," I said.

"I'll warn the sisters when we're in the car, he can't be trusted. Once he wants to prove something, he never gives up until he does,"

We walked out of the office and the inspector stopped to say something to his boss or something, the big bulky man.

"This is Paris; she was reporting her mom missing. She has been apparently since the night before last. I'm gonna take her down to Social Services and start an investigation for Joanne Lacey," he lied with ease. No wonder he was an inspector.

When we got into the car, I sat in the passenger seat and Inspector Morris got his phone out.

"Please can you not say it was me that told you about Inspector Cortez? You would have had to find out he saw them without them telling you. I would usually be happy for them to know it was me but at the moment, they think I'm a demon and Paige wants to vanquish me. So I would appreciate it if you didn't tell," I asked, politely.

"Sure," he replied, smiling. He lifted his phone up to his ear as it started ringing.

"Phoebe, it's me, Darryl. Cortez just told me what he saw at Joanne Lacey's apartment but I acted like it was complete crap," In the background, I heard what I think was Piper asking what it was, as Phoebe explained she answered "That son of a bitch!"

I smiled at that point because even though Cortez didn't blab, they all thought he had.

"I'm just warning you because he can be dangerous when it comes to things like this. He's gonna try and bust your asses," Morris concluded. He snapped his phone shut and put it in his trouser pocket.

"Right, next stop, South Bay Social Services," he said cheerfully.

_**A/N: Did you like chapter 10? I hope so because it took me a long time to write. Sorry about that, by the way. Please review, they all inspire me to work faster. Thanks!**_


	11. A Heart To Heart Discussion

**Chapter Eleven – A Heart To Heart Discussion**

_**A/N: This chapter is once again dedicated to Thalia's Tree, a constant reviewer who first gave me the idea for this soppy scene/chapter between the two sisters when they first reviewed. It is much shorter than most of the other chapters and is mostly a filler. Enjoy! And please review!**_

The phone at the Manor rang and Phoebe went to pick it up. Piper, who was the only other person downstairs, went over to the phone as well. Paige was in the attic.

"Phoebe, it's me, Darryl. Cortez just told me what he saw at Joanne Lacey's apartment but I acted like it was complete crap," Phoebe heard from the phone, she opened her mouth in shock.

"Who is it?" Piper asked, curious.

"It's Darryl. Cortez already told him what he saw at Shax's house," Phoebe explained, waiting cautiously for Piper's reaction.

"That son of a bitch!" she yelled, furious. Piper couldn't believe that Cortez had already told Darryl what he had seen. Thank God it had only been Darryl, who already knew their secret. What if it had been someone else?

"Are you still there Phoebe?" Darryl asked softly.

"Yeah," Phoebe whispered back, trying to get over the fact that they had yet another thing to worry about.

"I'm just warning you because he can be dangerous when it comes to things like this. He's gonna try and bust your asses," Darryl concluded.

"Thanks Darryl," Phoebe finished, hanging up.

Both women stared at each other, wondering what they were going to do.

"We have to shut him up, Phoebe," Piper spoke first, breaking the silence.

"Piper," Phoebe warned. She was worried about her sister. Piper had always been so in control and never driven by revenge or anger. Phoebe didn't know what had gotten into her.

"Piper, think about this," she started again.

"What's to think about Phoebe?" Piper questioned.

"Inspector Cortez is a mortal. Remember when I had that premonition of me being burnt at the stake and we went to the future?"

"What's that got to do with anything? That future doesn't exist anymore! Prue's dead!"

"Piper, we protect the innocent, we don't punish the guilty,"

"What about ourselves Phoebe? When can we start protecting ourselves? If we didn't have to protect the innocent all the time, Prue would still be here. But no, she just had to go and get herself killed. Did she ever think about how we would have felt? How we would have reacted? If Leo hadn't saved me but Prue instead, she could be here and do you know how guilty I feel, every day? Knowing that because I had to throw myself in front of Shax as well, Prue is dead? Knowing that because I went against the Elders and broke their stupid rules, Leo saved the wrong sister? I don't know how you can live with it Phoebe because I sure as Hell can't!" Piper sobbed angrily. Phoebe rushed over quickly to give Piper a reassuring hug.

"Leo didn't save the wrong sister Piper. He saved you for a reason. Prue was already dead by the time we got there; it was too late for her but not for you. Leo didn't save you because you're his wife; he saved you because it was the right thing to do. It wasn't your time to die. And until you learn to accept that, you won't be able to live with Prue's death," Phoebe soothed, stroking Piper's hair. They had both gone to sit down on the stairs and Phoebe was now crying as well as Piper.

"But-" Piper started to argue.

"No buts, sweetie. It's okay to be angry. Angry at Prue, at Leo, at the Elders, at me and Paige but don't get yourself killed because of it. Don't be driven by revenge," Phoebe finished. Piper's head was resting on her shoulder and they were holding hands. Phoebe just wished that this was enough for Piper to understand that she shouldn't vanquish Cortez at all and that she shouldn't vanquish Shax without the help of her sisters.

As if Piper had heard Phoebe's thoughts she replied;

"At least let me vanquish Paris,"

Phoebe thought for a moment.

"You know as well as I do that she isn't a demon. Yes, she may have been raised by Shax but by the looks of it, she had no idea about her guardian's demon form. She was just as shocked as we were when she orbed as well. We need answers Piper, and I think she has them,"

"Thanks Pheebs, for everything," Piper said.

"Don't thank me Piper, what are sisters for? I love you," Phoebe replied.

"I love you too," Piper answered.

The two of them continued to sit in silence, just thinking. They also held onto each other for dear life, both of them scared that if they let go, their sister would never be coming back. Just like Prue.

_**A/N: I hope you liked this heart to heart scene between Piper and Phoebe. I think I may be updating a little more over the next few weeks because we have the summer holidays coming up for school. Unfortunately, I have lots of holiday homework because I am going to be starting my GCSEs when I go back to school in September. Please review as it will make my day. Thanks!**_


	12. Searching For Paris

**Chapter Twelve – Searching For Paris**

_**A/N: I am so, so sorry everyone for not updating in ages! Please forgive me. I know I shouldn't make an excuse but I have been really busy for the past few weeks with the holidays and everything. Plus, I had a bad case of writer's block. I knew what was going to happen but I just couldn't write it for some reason. Anyway, I hope all this time has given me a random talent to write better so here's chapter twelve. Enjoy! And please review.**_

After a few more minutes of just sitting and thinking, Phoebe broke the silence.

"Maybe we should go to the attic and see how Paige is doing with scrying for Paris?"

Piper looked unsure; she wanted to stay right there on the stairs with Phoebe, they hadn't been able to do this in years and it was nice, just to be together without any magical problems getting in the way.

"Come on, Piper. She's our innocent," Phoebe insisted after realising Piper was reluctant.

"Fine. Fine," Piper sighed as she stood up.

The two sister witches went up to the attic to find out what their other sister was doing.

Paige looked up from the map of San Francisco as she heard her sisters come in.

"Oh, hey guys,"

"Hi, Paige. Have you found Paris yet?" Phoebe asked.

"No, it's quite hard to scry for a whitelighter you know, especially one that we've only met once," Paige complained, putting the crystal down in frustration.

"But she's your charge. Can't you just sense her?" Piper wondered out loud.

"No, the only reason I knew where she was the first time was because she was calling for me but now that she isn't, I can't sense her," Paige answered.

"Leo can sense us all the time though," Piper pointed out.

"Leo's been a whitelighter longer than I have," Paige said, getting annoyed.

"Can't we just write a spell?" Piper asked nobody in particular.

"What to like, summon her or something?" Phoebe replied.

"Is that possible?" Paige asked.

"It is now," Phoebe replied.

At that moment, Paige's phone rang. She picked it up and answered it.

"Hello?" she said into the phone. "Oh, Mr Cowan, hi," "Well, I'm kind of busy at the moment," "Yes, I know my lunch break finished an hour and a half ago but-" "It's urgent?" "Okay, I'll be in right away," Paige hung up the phone and sent an apologetic look towards her sisters.

"That was my boss, something's come up and I have to go in straight away. Sorry guys," Paige explained.

"No, it's okay. You go in and Piper and I will try and come up with a spell that will bring Paris to us," Phoebe replied.

"We'll call you once the spell is finished. We may need all three of us to say the spell," Piper added. She hadn't wanted to say "the power of three" because that didn't exist; no matter how many times Leo said it did.

"Thank guys," Paige said, orbing out.

"Mr Cowan," Paige said, running into South Bay Social Services. "I came as quickly as I – Paris?" Paige asked, shocked to see her charge sitting on a chair.

"You know this girl?" her boss asked.

"No, I – No. I don't know her," Paige replied. She couldn't explain how she knew Paris so it was best to pretend she didn't.

Her boss didn't look convinced. "Right,"

"Mr Cowan, I know you said it's urgent but me and my sisters were in the middle of something and-"

"Paige, I'm promoting you," Mr Cowan interrupted.

"What?" Paige asked, astounded.

"You heard me right Paige. I'm promoting you to a social worker. I've been meaning to do it for a long time but then you had lots of personal problems and now that the funeral is finished, I thought you needed some cheering up. Congratulations, Paige,"

"Thank you so much Mr Cowan! I can't believe it, I'm finally a social worker!" Paige shouted with joy.

"You can celebrate later but right now, you have a job to do. This girl is called Paris Lacey and a couple of hours ago, she reported her mother missing at the SFPD. I need you to fill in some paper work and maybe talk to her because she hasn't spoken to anyone apart from the Inspector that brought her here. Paris is your first child and she seems very shy so I would like you to be gentle with her. Remember, it's now up to you where she goes,"

"Okay,"

"Your office is down the hall and the second door on the left," he explained to Paige. Then, Mr Cowan turned to Paris and said "This is Paige, your social worker. Go with her and she'll find somewhere for you to go,"

Paris didn't answer and silently started to follow Paige to her office.

Phoebe and Piper were in the attic together. Piper was still trying to scry for Paris and Phoebe was finishing the summoning spell.

"Okay, Piper, I think the spell is done. Shall we call Paige?" Phoebe said.

"No, Paige obviously needs to be at work. We'll try it ourselves and if it doesn't work, then we'll call Paige," Piper answered.

"Okay," Phoebe agreed. She passed Piper a copy of the spell she had just written and they joined hands and chanted.

"_In this day, in this hour,_

_We call upon the ancient power._

_To bring in front of us, a girl,_

_This unknown whitelighter named Paris._

_Bring to us, Paris,_

_We would like Paris."_

Nothing happened and the two witches stood there. Phoebe wondered what had gone wrong; her spells had never failed before.

"Creative," Piper said sarcastically "But did you have to say Paris so many times, I think they got who we were talking about the first time,"

"Well, you write it then," Phoebe replied, hurt.

"Maybe we need Paige as well," Piper said after realising she had insulted Phoebe.

Before Phoebe could answer, there was a knock on the front door.

"I wonder who that is," Piper wondered.

"Only one way to find out," Phoebe answered, leaving the attic.

"Paige," Piper called and quickly followed.

Phoebe opened the front door and was surprised to see Darryl there.

"Hi, Phoebe," he said, pushing his way inside.

"Darryl, what's wrong with you?" Phoebe asked, shocked at how rude Darryl was acting. He didn't answer and Piper came down the stairs. She looked disappointed when she saw the Inspector.

"This isn't bad is it? Only, we really need to find Paris but we can only do that with Paige and she's not answering my calls which either means she's in trouble or she's ignoring us or-" Piper started to rant. "Why have you got a search warrant?" she asked, noticing it.

"Cortez. He wants to expose you. He's getting the Manor bugged as we speak so I need to hurry. I was able to convince him to let me search your house but I can't be long. Just don't use any magic and if you have to, don't do it near the windows and don't talk about it. Okay? I have to go," Darryl explained quickly as he rushed out of the door.

"Darryl, wait!" Phoebe started but he had already gone.

"Great," Piper said sarcastically.

"Now what are we gonna do?" Phoebe sighed in defeat.

Paige shut the door to her new office as Paris sat on one of the chairs.

"Paris," Paige started but Paris interrupted before she could finish.

"I didn't expose your secret, if that's what you're worried about," Paris said as Paige sat down.

"You didn't?" Paige asked shocked. She really had expected Paris to tell someone, seeing as they had tried to kill her mother in front of her. Paris didn't know anything about magic so it was probably quite a shock.

"No, I didn't. I was going to and when I got to the station I had every intention and I did but I told Inspector Morris and he already knew. He told me that you were good witches and that if I exposed you, you wouldn't be able to vanquish demons anymore. I told him what you had done to my mom and he was very sympathetic but he did say that you would only have done that for a reason. He was the person that came up with the cover story that my mom was missing. I was also the one who told him about Cortez," Paris explained.

"Told Darryl what about Cortez?" Paige asked, curiously.

"That Cortez had been there and he was probably going to tell someone. The Inspector did phone you guys, I was with him," Paris said.

"Oh, then. I was in the attic trying to find you," Paige realised.

"What made you look in your attic? Why would I be up there?" Paris questioned.

Paige remembered that Paris had no idea about magic so tried to explain scrying to her.

"Well, there's this one way of finding someone where you get a map and dangle a crystal over it. It's called scrying. I couldn't find you though. That's why I was so shocked when I saw you here," Paige replied.

"Why were you looking for me?" Paris asked. "You don't still want to vanquish me, do you?" she said, looking slightly scared.

"No, don't worry. You're our innocent, it's our job to protect you," Paige reassured her.

"You, Phoebe and Piper?"

"Yeah," Paige said sadly, remembering Prue.

"Paige! Paige! We have been calling you for ages, why can't you just orb your ass here? Or at least answer your phone!" Phoebe yelled at the ceiling. The familiar sight of blue and white orbs came down. "Finally!" Phoebe sighed, annoyed.

As the lights materialised, Phoebe realised it wasn't who she thought it was.

"Leo," Piper said as she went over and kissed him.

"Where's Paige? She's not hurt or in trouble is she?" Phoebe asked her brother-in-law/whitelighter, sounding worried.

"No, she's fine. She's at work,"

"Work?" Piper screamed. "Why the hell is she at work? We've been calling her for an hour. On her cell as well,"

"Paige got promoted," Leo explained.

"Oh, that is so great," Phoebe said; all the anger leaving her. She was so proud of her little sister. Piper however, was still annoyed.

"That is not an excuse. Innocents come first, she knows that," Piper argued, going over to the table filled with potion ingredients. She started putting ingredients into a pot.

"What are you doing Piper?" Leo asked.

"If she isn't coming here voluntarily, we're just going to have to make her come here," Piper explained.

"You can't summon her Piper, what if she's in a meeting. Loads of people will see," Phoebe argued, trying to change her sister's mind. Piper didn't answer and got a knife and started chanting.

"_Power of the sisters' rise,_

_Course unseen across the skies._

_Come to us, who call you near,_

_Come to us and settle here." _She then got the knife and cut her finger, dripping some blood into the pot.

"_Blood to blood, I summon thee,_

_Blood to blood, return to me."_

White lights appeared in the attic and Paige and Paris came into view.

"Paige, why weren't you answering our calls?" Phoebe asked, annoyed again. Nobody had noticed that Paris was in the room.

"Phoebe, you cannot just summon me like that! What if I had been with somebody?" Paige shouted.

"It was Piper, not me," Phoebe said, defending herself.

"How did I get here?" Paris asked, scared.

"Paris?" Paige gasped, flabbergasted. How had she got there?

_**A/N: I hope you liked chapter twelve. It was quite a long chapter again but I wanted a few things to be explained. I'm sorry it's a cliff hanger but doesn't that make you want to read the next chapter? I would really appreciate reviews, I have so many already and they really inspire me to write quicker. Thank you!**_


	13. To Find A Lost Sister

**Chapter Thirteen – To Find A Lost Sister**

_**A/N: This is quite a quick update seeing as I thought I had writer's block! I guess that's over now :). Thank-you for all the reviews I got – I can't believe I'm only thirteen reviews away from 100! That is amazing. Enjoy chapter thirteen and please review everybody! Thanks. By the way, in this story, Patty died the same way but in 1982 instead of 1978.**_

"Hi," Paris said, awkwardly, looking down at her feet.

"Uh, Paige, why did you bring the demon?" Piper moaned, closing the Book Of Shadows.

"Hey! I'm not a demon!" Paris shouted angrily. The three women ignored her.

"Me? That wasn't me! You were the one calling for—" Paige paused, as they all realised the same thing. "a lost sister…" Paige finished.

"Sister?" Paris asked, confused. Leo was now the one looking down at his feet as he realised that his charges had worked out something they weren't supposed to know yet.

"Oh, sweetie," Phoebe said, going over to hug Paris. Piper stopped her.

"Wait," she said slowly. "I don't trust this,"

"Trust what? You said the spell to summon a lost sister and –" Paige started then stopped, wondering how to say the next part.

"I guess that's what we got," Phoebe filled in for her.

"But, how?" Paris asked slowly. It was the question everybody wanted to ask, but nobody knew the answer to.

Piper turned angrily towards her husband. "Leo," she started, trying to keep calm, which was hard to do seeing as she had just found out she had another sister. But what was worse was that Leo had lied about it.

"Piper…I can explain," Leo said.

"Explain what Leo? Can you explain why you lied to us? Can you explain why you never told us she was our sister? Can you explain how this happened?" Piper yelled, losing her temper.

"Yes. First of all, I couldn't tell you the truth about Paris because the Elders didn't want me to,"

"Is that so?" Piper asked.

"Since when so you listen to what the Elders say Leo?" Paige added.

"I thought it was best not to tell you as well, Piper. I saw the way you reacted when you lost Prue. I couldn't imagine how you would've reacted to getting a new sister," Leo said calmly, trying to reason with his wife.

"It doesn't mean you had to keep something as important as this away from us Leo. When were you going to tell us?" Piper screamed.

"Piper—" Leo started.

Cole shimmered in suddenly between Piper and Leo. He noticed the angry expression on Piper's face.

"Am I interrupting something?" Cole asked.

"No—" Leo started to tell him.

"Yes," Piper said at the same time as her husband.

"Right, sorry," Cole went to go and stand next to Phoebe. "Carry on," he said, motioning to them that they could continue.

"Piper, the Elders wanted me to give you the news after you had vanquished Shax, so you would have a bit of time to recover from the loss of losing Prue,"

"Leo, we are never going recover from that," Piper said.

"They asked me to think up a cover story for Paris. A story which would mean she wouldn't know how she was a whitelighter but where she would still have her powers. In order to vanquish Shax, you needed the power of four, you needed to find Paris," Leo answered.

"That's why she became my charge," Paige realised out loud.

"Exactly. But she never would have become your charge unless you tried to find her first," Leo started.

"The 'To Call A Lost Sister' spell," Phoebe finished for him after realising what he was saying.

"Right. When Prue first died, all three of you said that spell so many times and with each time you said it, Paris was getting closer and closer. All the Elders needed to do was make her Paige's charge. They first thought that one day, Paris would lead you to Shax but it turned out you found her before that," Leo explained.

"So why did you make up all that stuff about Paris being a future whitelighter? Why not just tell us the truth?" Phoebe asked.

"Well, the Elders didn't think you would take it too well but honestly, I didn't know how to tell you. I couldn't just blurt it out like that. I wanted – I wanted you to-"

"Find out for ourselves?" Paige asked.

"Precisely. Some of what I told you was true; her parents couldn't look after her, the Source wanted to raise her as evil, she needed to be saved,"

"From what? My own mother?" Paris asked. "As soon as I was old enough, my mom told me I was adopted but she said, that no matter what, I was her daughter and that she would always love me. Are you telling me that all her love, all her affection – was fake?"

This time it was Cole who answered.

"Not necessarily. The only reason Shax killed Prue was because the Source didn't trust her anymore. He thought she had gone good. Being half human like me, she was capable of love and she must of loved you Paris because for fourteen years, no one knew where she was. The Source threatened Shax and said that if she didn't kill the Charmed Ones, he would take you away from her and she loved you too much,"

"Wait. You knew all this time that a demon had Paris, yet you never mentioned it?" Phoebe questioned, getting angry.

"I'd heard rumours but brushed them off. I figured if you had a sister that had been taken by evil, you would have mentioned it. Even when you didn't know I was a demon," Cole said calmly. None of them looked convinced.

"And it never occurred to you that _we_ didn't know we had a sister?" Phoebe asked.

"Well, no," Cole shrugged his shoulders.

"What I don't understand is how evil got hold of Paris. And how we never heard about it," Piper exclaimed suddenly.

"It was a pretty secretive plan. Only the Source and Shax knew about it," Cole suggested.

"I don't think Piper means it like that. I think she means why did we never know about Paris until now?" Paige clarified.

"I think I know who knows the answer to that," Phoebe said, getting some candles and forming a circle. She lit the candles and chanted;

"_Hear these words,_

_Hear my cry,_

_Spirit from the other side._

_Come to me, I summon thee._

_Cross now the great divide,"_

There was some light and then Grams could be seen in the circle.

"How'd you do that?" Paris asked, shocked.

"Magic sweetheart," Grams answered.

"Are you a ghost?" she asked Grams.

"I prefer the term spirit. Now what do you all want? I was busy," Grams said.

"Busy doing what? You're dead," Paige remarked.

"Now dear, just because I'm dead doesn't mean I can't have a life," Grams argued.

"Well, yeah it does. I mean, to have a life, you need to be alive," Paige continued.

"This is no time for chit chat. Grams, why did you never tell us about Paris?" Piper said sharply.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Grams denied.

"Grams, you were a lousy liar when you were alive and now as a ghost, you're worse. Why did you never tell us we had a baby sister?" Piper asked again.

"I'm not a baby," Paris said.

"Yeah, but you're still our baby sister," Phoebe answered.

"Grams!" Piper shouted.

"I'm afraid I can't tell you. I'm sworn to secrecy," Grams replied.

"By who?" Piper demanded.

"By me," a voice said. Another woman formed next to Grams. "By me," she repeated.

"Mom?" Phoebe asked, wanting answers.

"Girls, I wanted to tell you, believe me I did. And I was going to, when you were old enough to understand but then-" Patty started.

"You died?" Paige answered for her.

Patty nodded in reply.

"But how? When?" Paige asked.

"After you were born Paige, Sam got his wings clipped but They let me keep you because you were a Charmed One. Almost seven years later, Sam got his wings back and became a whitelighter again. He came to me one night, to tell me that we could never see each other again but-"

"You got pregnant?" Paris asked after not speaking for a long time. She was trying hard not to cry.

"Yeah, I got pregnant. I didn't tell Sam, he would've got his wings clipped again and he didn't deserve that,"

"You never told him?" Paris asked.

"No, I couldn't. I tried to hide my pregnancy under baggy clothes and you two," she turned to Phoebe and Paige. "You too just thought mommy got a little fat. You were only seven and eight. Piper though; you and Prue figured it out almost straight away," Piper smiled and let the tears in her eyes fall. "You promised not to tell Phoebe and Paige but of course, when Paris was born, I wiped your memories of any baby," All four sisters were crying now.

"But why did you give me away," Paris answered.

"Because whitelighters and witches were forbidden to fall in love, let alone have children. Paige was only allowed to stay with us because she was a Charmed One," Patty started. It was now Grams' turn to finish.

"We couldn't let the Elders find out about you because then your sisters wouldn't have been able to fulfil their destinies of the Charmed Ones so we decided it was best to give you to a family that could look after you and love you. We took you to a church and asked the nun there to find a nice home for you,"

"But instead, she gave me to a demon," Paris finished.

"I died a year after that, before I could tell you all about Paris. I'm just so pleased that you've found her. Come here sweetie," Patty cried.

Patty stepped out of the circle and pulled her long-lost daughter into a hug.

Then, Piper, Phoebe and Paige joined in with the hug, Grams not long after.

They all stood there, clinging onto each other, pleased to have finally found the rest of their family. Paris couldn't believe she had sisters and another loving mom and a grandmother, although they were dead. She was happier than she had been in a long time.

"I hate to break up this heart-breaking reunion," a voice said sarcastically. "But you are all under arrest,"

_**A/N: Who can guess who the voice at the end was? Also, should I do a sequel to Destinies when this story is finished? Please review, I would appreciate it.**_


	14. Cortez Returns

**Chapter Fourteen – Cortez Returns**

_**A/N: Chapter fourteen is here! There are only five more chapters including this one left of Destinies, but don't worry, I am doing a sequel. This is in Paris' point of view again by the way. Please review!**_

"I hate to break up this heart-breaking reunion," a voice said sarcastically, "But you are all under arrest,"

We broke apart and turned around. Paige gasped and Piper looked furiously at the owner of the voice.

"Inspector Cortez," she said snidely. Darryl was standing just behind Cortez with an apologetic look on his face.

"I'm sorry, guys. I tried to stop him," Darryl explained.

"Oh, please. What's he gonna do? Shoot us?" Grams mocked.

"Easy, Grams, not all of us are dead, remember?" Phoebe pointed out. Despite the situation, I couldn't stop myself from smiling.

"Now, we can either do this the easy way or the hard way?" Cortez said with a smirk.

"Or we could do it my way," Cole suggested, forming a ball of what looked like energy in his hand. Phoebe hit his arm lightly.

"Get rid of that!" she whispered sharply at her boyfriend. He frowned and the ball of energy disappeared. I didn't know what it was but by Phoebe's reaction, it probably wasn't the solution.

"You really expect us to come with you?" I asked, earning a sharp look from my birth Mom, telling me not to go there. I smiled sweetly at her and carried on "I mean, how are you going to get two dead people, three…erm—" I didn't know how to continue seeing as I had no idea what my sisters were.

"Two dead witches, two living witches, two half-witches/half-whitelighters, a full whitelighter and a demon to come with you?" Cole continued for me. I guessed he was the demon. And I knew I wasn't dead. So did that make me a witch or a half witch/half whitelighter? I'd have to ask my sisters later. Okay, that sounded weird: my sisters.

"Don't make me shoot you," Cortez warned.

"Shoot me? What do you think that will do?" Cole asked smugly.

Paige looked across to Cole.

"Er-Cole. It might not hurt you but it will hurt us you know," she said as if we needed remembering.

"Even if you did get us to the station, it's not like you have any proof," Piper said confidently. I had no idea where she had got all that confidence from but it probably wasn't helping us in any way. Cortez had a video camera; that meant we were on film.

"All you've got on that camera is three women finding out they have a long-lost sister. It's not exactly what I would call hard evidence," Piper pointed out.

"What are you going to arrest us for anyway? It's not illegal to practise witchcraft," Paige added.

"You're all arrested on suspicion of murder," Cortez explained finally. Murder? But he had the wrong person.

"You think we killed Prue? How could you think that?" Phoebe whispered shrilly. I could tell she was freaking out.

"I don't know what to think. But what I do know is that you people are evil and dangerous. All those unsolved cases linked to you, they were you. Morris was just covering for you wasn't he?" Cortez accused, not waiting for an answer.

"But that's over now, all those unexplainable murders, they won't happen anymore, not once you're where you belong; locked up and –" Darryl hit Cortez over the head with the barrel of his gun and Cortez fell to the floor; knocked out cold.

"I think you've all dealt with enough today," Darryl said, explaining his actions.

"Thanks," Piper replied.

"Look, Darryl, you have to go," Phoebe started.

"No, Phoebe I can't do that," Darryl said immediately.

"You have to; otherwise you'll get blamed for this. We'll take care of Cortez," Phoebe insisted. Darryl nodded and quickly left the attic.

"So what are we gonna do with him?" I asked, not sure if I wanted to know the answer.

"Well, there are plenty of witches in the room, I'm sure we can think of something. Start rhyming," Grams instructed. Rhyming? What the hell? What would that do?

"You can do that?" Paige asked. "I mean, we've made up spells before but only summoning spells and vanquishing spells. Not spells to get rid of people," Oh, so they were going to make a spell to get rid of Cortez? This could be interesting.

"Yeah, sure. It's easy. Just start chanting:

_Take him back,_

_Take him away._

_Remove him now,_

_Don't let him stay," _Grams said. Was making a spell really that easy? Grams motioned to Phoebe to continue the spell.

"_We call the spirits, to help undo,_

_And send him off to…" _Phoebe paused, trying to think of a word _"Timbuktu!" _she finished loudly.

The Inspector's body disappeared.

"That was so cool!" I shouted excitedly. Phoebe looked just as surprised as I did.

"It worked!" she said triumphantly. Piper, on the other hand, looked kind of angry.

"Timbuktu? You sent him to Timbuktu?" She screamed. Oh, that was why.

"It was the only thing that rhymed with undo," Phoebe tried to defend herself.

Leo spoke up for the first time in a long while.

"Don't worry, I'll find him," he said and suddenly his body was engulfed in blue and white lights. Once they had disappeared, Leo was no longer standing in the attic.

"How did he do that?" I asked.

"It's called orbing, you and I can do it too," Paige explained.

"Really?" I asked again, getting excited.

"Yeah, it takes a bit of practice but I'll teach you if you like," she answered.

"Thanks," I replied.

_**A/N: Sorry this chapter is so short. Please review!**_


	15. An Unwanted Visitor

**Chapter Fifteen-An Unwanted Visitor**

_**A/N: **__**Sorry I haven't updated in such a long time. I've been on holiday for the past week so even though I didn't have Internet, I was still able to write this next chapter. You'd be surprised by how much inspiration you can get from staying in a tiny house in the Welsh countryside for a week. Hope you enjoy and please review, thanks!**_

"We have to go," Grams said, breaking the silence that lay between the Halliwells and Cole.

"Goodbye, my darlings. Blessed be," Patty added and the two of them left.

"So, is anyone going to explain, like, everything to me?" Paris insisted happily. The realisation that she had three older sisters and that she had some kind of weird power, had just dawned on her.

"Sure," Paige replied. "What do you want explained?"

"Well, I know you guys are witches and I know you're good so does that make me a witch? And what do you do? Do you have any powers or something like that?" Paris asked all at once.

Paige laughed at her sister's impatience and thought about how to reply.

"We vanquish demons and yes, you are a witch, just like us. But you're also half Whitelighter, like me, which means we have other powers too," Paige started to explain.

"What's a Whitelighter?" Paris asked.

"They're like guardian angels for good witches. Our dad was one and so is Leo. Our dad was our mom's Whitelighter and Leo is ours," Paige continued, answering Paris' question.

"And Piper's husband?" Paris added.

"How did you figure that out?" Phoebe asked with a laugh. Paris looked at them knowingly but didn't answer.

"So, do you guys have any powers?" she asked Piper and Phoebe.

"Yeah," Piper answered, "I can freeze things and blow them up," Piper froze Cole, unfroze him and then blew up a chair in the corner.

"That is so cool!" Paris said in reply.

"And I get premonitions and I can levitate," Phoebe continued.

"Levitate?" Paris interrupted. Phoebe nodded and levitated.

"Wicked,"

"And my powers are Telekinesis but with a twist. I call for an object and it orbs to me. And then, I can orb, glamour, sense and heal but only when I'm doing it with another Whitelighter," Paige finished. Paris looked confused about all the weird names so Paige glamoured into Paris and then orbed next to Piper. Then, she glamoured back into herself.

"What about me? What are my powers?" Paris asked excitedly, she was beginning to like all this magic stuff.

"Well, we already know that you can orb and heal from your Whitelighter side but other than that, I have no idea," Phoebe answered.

"Is it possible that I won't get any other powers,"

"You may get other Whitelighter powers like Paige but you might not get any witch powers," Piper said.

"Oh" Paris replied.

"But don't worry," Cole interjected, seeing Paris' disappointment. "You're a Charmed One; you're going to have a power from your witch side,"

Paris smiled again.

"What's a Charmed One?" She asked her sisters, curious.

"Our ancestor, Melinda Warren, had a premonition that with every generation of Warren witches, they would get stronger. And eventually there would be three sisters that were known as the Charmed Ones," Phoebe started.

"But then, I came along and the prophecy changed, so instead of three sisters, the Charmed Ones became four sisters. Then, Prue died and Cole seems to think you're a Charmed One," Paige added.

"But that's obviously not true because Melinda Warren didn't see a fifth Charmed One. Paris isn't one of us," Piper insisted.

"Of course she is! That's why the Source told Shax to adopt her, so the Source could make a Charmed One evil which would result in all of them becoming evil!" Cole yelled, getting annoyed at Piper's stupidity.

"But I'm not evil!" Paris cried, frustrated and hurt at what Piper had said.

"Of course you aren't," Paige said comfortingly, glaring at Piper and Cole. "Why don't I teach you how to orb?"

"Well, I'm going downstairs to do something useful," Piper snapped, leaving the attic. Cole followed, thinking Phoebe would do the same.

"Paige," Phoebe warned.

"What? Orbing is useful, it would be better if Paris could do it as well as me," Paige argued fairly.

"But right now? Paige, we have to vanquish Shax, she's our main priority," Phoebe explained.

"Phoebe, can I talk to you on the stairs?" Paige insisted, grabbing Phoebe's arm and taking her outside the attic. "How can you expect Paris to vanquish Shax? She's her mother, she was raised by her. You can't just expect her to vanquish her!" Paige whispered loudly.

"Why not? Shax is a threat to all of us," Phoebe replied.

"What? And Cole isn't? Or do I need to remind you that a year ago, he was trying to kill us?"

"Don't start with this Cole thing again, I know you hate him but he didn't kill us,"

"Yeah, because he loved you, just like Shax loves Paris. She's not going to kill us as long as we're with Paris,"

"She killed Prue, are you telling me you don't want revenge? You're just going to let it go?"

"Phoebe, don't you understand? If we vanquish Shax, Paris will never forgive us. We may have avenged Prue's death but we would have lost another sister. Are you telling me you don't care about Paris? Prue would want us to look after Paris, not vanquish Shax,"

"You were ready to vanquish Paris before but now you can't even vanquish Shax? The real demon!"

"That was before we knew who Paris was to us," Paige started.

"Guys," Paris interrupted. Paige went silent and Phoebe looked shocked.

"How long were you standing there?" Paige asked. Paris didn't answer, she just looked at the floor and tried not to cry.

"How long Paris?" Paige demanded again.

"The whole time," Paris answered softly. Phoebe looked horrified and very disappointed with herself.

"Sweetie, listen. I know how you're feeling, trust me, I had to go through the exact same thing with Cole-" Phoebe started to say.

"But you never vanquished him," Paris interrupted.

"No, I didn't and-"

"It's okay Phoebe. I get it. I have to vanquish my mom. Otherwise you and Piper will hate me even more than you already do,"

"We don't hate you; we're just going through some stuff right now,"

"You're going through some stuff? What about the stuff I'm going through? I have just found out that I have three sisters and that my other sister was killed by the person I call mom! Do you know how guilty that makes me feel?" Paris yelled angrily. "So right now, I don't need you two discussing whether or not I can vanquish my mom!"

From downstairs, there was a loud crash and a scream. Paige and Phoebe looked at each other.

"Piper!" Phoebe shouted, running down the stairs. Paige followed.

"Wait here!" She instructed to Paris. Paris didn't listen and quickly followed her two sisters about ten seconds later.

When she got to the other set of stairs, Paris could see all three of her sisters and Cole trying to dodge her mom's attacks. What had Paige said? 'As long as we're with Paris, Shax won't hurt us!' Paris had to stop her mom and quickly.

"No!" She yelled at the top of her voice just as Paige got thrown across the room. Shax stopped and looked up angrily. Seeing Paris, she swept her arm in front of her and Paris was thrown backwards into the wall with Shax's power of aerokinesis. The force of the blow caused Paris to fall down the stairs and once she was at the bottom, Piper and Phoebe could see that she was knocked out cold and bleeding heavily. And Piper was angry.

"Hey! Nobody hurts my sisters and gets away with it!" She screamed.

Piper started to blow up Shax and when it didn't work the first time, she did it again and again.

Shax whirled out in pain just as Paige woke up. Phoebe ran to help Paige and Piper and Cole rushed over to Paris' side. Cole checked her pulse.

"It's there but it's faint," he explained with a worried expression.

"Leo!" Piper called. Paige and Phoebe walked over to Cole, Piper and Paris as Leo orbed in.

"Quick, heal Paris," Piper instructed. Leo put his hands over Paris' body and started to heal her.

"What happened? he asked.

The Halliwells were too busy worrying to answer so Cole did.

"Shax attacked," he said. "Piper and I were downstairs, Shax whirled in and Phoebe and Paige came down. Paris was supposed to stay in the attic-"

"But I wanted to help," Paris concluded as she woke up.

"Are you okay?" Piper asked, worried.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Was that really my mom?" Paris answered faintly.

"I'm afraid so, I think the Source is giving her more power," Cole replied.

"That would make sense; it might also explain why she attacked you. With the promise of more power, the Source can get Shax to do anything," Leo added.

"No! My mom's not like that, it's got to be something else," Paris insisted.

"Maybe the Source is threatening her again," Paige suggested.

"Why would she hurt Paris though?" Phoebe asked.

"Maybe she's just being a demon," Paris suggested sadly.

"Oh no sweetie, she's half human, she hasn't stopped loving you, she never will. She doesn't want to hurt you," Phoebe assured her.

"But she did hurt me," Paris argued.

"Maybe the Source was watching, Shax couldn't not hurt Paris if she wanted to stay on his good side," Paige said.

"Leo? Where's Cortez?" Piper asked, realising he wasn't there. "You were supposed to bring him back here,"

"You didn't really give me enough time to find him. I'll go and find him now," Leo replied.

"No, it's okay. I'll go, maybe I can knock some sense into him," Cole said, forming an energy ball in his hand.

"Don't hurt him, Cole," Paige warned, eyeing the energy ball. Cole got rid of it and shimmered out.

"He wasn't going to hurt him Paige," Phoebe said angrily. "I don't get why you don't trust him,"

"Duh," Paige replied. "He's a demon,"

"Not this again! He's half human and even his demon side is good. He's not a demon anymore Paige. When are you going to understand that Paige?"

"He still seems to use his demonic powers a lot and he goes to the Underworld quite often too," Paige argued.

"Yeah, for good, Paige!" Phoebe shouted.

"Guys! Now is really no the time," Piper cut in.

"Yeah, don't we have a demon to vanquish?" Paris added.

"Paris," Paige started. "You don't have to-"

"Yeah, I do. I understand, don't worry,"

"Maybe you should wait until tomorrow," Leo suggested.

"Good idea," Phoebe replied.

Paige's phone started to ring. She answered it. "Hello? Hi, Mr Cowan. Yeah, Paris is with me. Do I know where she can stay for now?" Paige looked around at her sisters and Leo. "Yeah, I have the perfect place," she said with a smile. "Okay, bye Mr Cowan,"

"Paige, she can't stay here," Piper argued.

"Why not? We're the only family she has," Paige said.

"There's nowhere for her to sleep," Piper insisted. Paige looked at her. "No, not Prue's room,"

"Why not, Piper? Prue's not using it and I'm sure she'd be fine with it,"

"Paige, no!" Piper repeated.

"Come on Paris, lets sort your room out," Paige said, ignoring Piper.

"Paige, don't be like this," Piper said as Paige and Paris went downstairs.

"Paige is right you know, Prue would be fine with it. Paris is a great kid," Phoebe said.

"And our sister," Piper added with a slight smile.

"Why don't you make a family dinner? Paris would love that," Phoebe suggested.

"Good idea, let's go," Piper agreed, grinning slightly.

"Yay," Phoebe replied, happy that Piper was happy.

_**A/N: Hope you enjoyed this chapter and sorry for the wait. I'm so happy that I have over 100 reviews! That is so awesome. Thanks to everyone who has reviewed. **_


	16. The Plan

**Chapter Sixteen – The Plan**

_**A/N: A couple of people reviewed saying that in the last chapter, the ending was rushed and they didn't think Piper would react like that. I agree. But for now it will stay like that because I should be doing my homework, not writing this but I haven't updated in ages because of school and I wanted to get a break from homework. Enjoy chapter sixteen! The third-to-last chapter!**_

Early the next morning, all four Halliwell sisters, Leo and Cole had just gone up to the attic after a delicious breakfast of Piper's chocolate chip pancakes. Cole had come back late the night before with Cortez' cassette tape and had said that Cortez was fine and wouldn't be telling anyone their secret anytime soon. Paige was still uncertain on whether Cole had actually saved Cortez from wherever he was.

"So, what did you say to him? If you got the cassette tape, you must have said something to change his mind," Paige asked Cole for the fourth time.

And, like the three other times before, Cole answered in the same way: "Paige, I know you don't trust me but this time you have to. I said what was necessary to get him on our side," Cole insisted, annoyed.

"But where is he now?" Paige carried on.

"At the SFPD, most likely with Darryl," Cole replied.

"Oh, really? And what makes you think we believe you?" Paige asked.

"Do _not_ go there Paige. I'm warning you," Phoebe interrupted. Leo decided to intervene before Phoebe and Paige had another argument.

"Guys, this really isn't the time," Leo said. Paris nodded in agreement while Piper continued flicking through the Book of Shadows.

"Yeah, don't we have to think of a plan?" Paris asked her new sisters.

"Yeah, we do. Now we have the Power of Four, it should be easy to vanquish Shax, we just need to find her," said Phoebe.

"We could just do what we did before and go to her apartment, surprise her," suggested Paige.

"That's good, Paige but will it work? It didn't work last time," Piper said as she closed the Book.

"That was because I kinda ruined your plan," Paris apologised.

"It wasn't your fault, you did heal me," Paige added.

"But Shax probably won't be there anyway, she's hiding," Cole said. "If I could just go to the Underworld—"

"See, I told you Phoebe. He loves going down there," Paige said smirking.

"Not now, Paige," Piper snapped.

Phoebe glared at Paige but didn't say anything. Instead she turned to Cole. "You can't go down there Cole, it's too dangerous," she pleaded.

"Really, Phoebe? It's too dangerous for the all mighty Belthazor?" asked Paige sarcastically.

"Paige," Piper warned again.

"Sorry," Paige said, rolling her eyes and not looking sorry at all. "Well, what are we gonna do then?"

"Do you do this often?" Paris asked, curious.

"What? Vanquish demons? Sure but usually it doesn't take this long to find them," Phoebe said.

"Right," Paris looked unconvinced.

"What about scrying?" Paige suggested, getting bored.

"Paige, you know that's not gonna work. Why bother saying it?" Piper questioned.

"I don't know. This is just making my head hurt," she answered.

"I've got an idea," said Paris slowly.

"What is it?" asked Leo.

"What if we use me as bait? Mom is gonna come to me, I'm sure of it," Paris started.

"What do you suggest?" Cole asked.

"I go to my apartment and then start calling for my mom or something. I'm certain she'll be listening. She'll do that thing she does—"

"Whirling," Piper added.

"Yeah, whirling. So, my mom whirls in and then I'll call for you guys, you can…" Paris stopped to remember the word her sisters had used. "You can orb in and we'll all say the spell and - and Shax…will be vanquished," Paris finished.

"No," Piper said immediately. "That's too dangerous,"

"Exactly Paris. You don't know how she'll react. She's a demon," Phoebe added.

"It's way too risky. She could kill you, we don't wanna lose another sister to her," Paige said sadly. Piper looked down at these words, trying to fight the urge to cry. But Paris wasn't giving up.

"We don't have a better idea, do we? Yeah, it's not the best plan but it's all we've got," Paris insisted.

"That's true. Paris can always orb out if Shax tries to kill her," Leo said.

"She's not gonna—" Paris tried to say.

"But she doesn't know how to," Paige argued.

"It's a fear response," Leo replied.

"My mom isn't going to kill me!" Paris shouted, getting impatient.

"You don't know that sweetie," Phoebe said softly, putting her arm around Paris' shoulder, trying to comfort her. Paris shrugged it off and turned away but Phoebe tried not to let the hurt show on her face, Paris wasn't used to people comforting her.

"Look, I wanna do this and I'm going to do it whether you want me to or not. So, if I was you, I would just go with it, otherwise you may well lose another sister," Paris snapped harshly. Piper looked hurt but realised that Paris was definitely a Halliwell – she was stubborn. Just like Prue.

"Okay," Paige sighed, knowing, like Piper, that Paris wasn't going to let them change her mind. "We'll do it," she finished. Paris smiled triumphantly.

_**A/N: Sorry it's so short, I have really bad writer's block. Review please!**_


	17. I Will Always Love You

**Chapter Seventeen – I Will Always Love You**

_**A/N: This is a really quick update surprisingly. I only uploaded chapter sixteen yesterday but because I hadn't updated in such for long time before that, I decided to upload chapter seventeen today. I wrote it pretty quickly too which I'm glad about. I've decided I like these kinds of chapters. Enjoy!**_

About an hour later, Piper, Leo and Paige were in the kitchen just finishing of a potion for Paris. Phoebe and Cole were in the attic with Paris who was strangely talkative.

"So what do you think my power will be Phoebe?" Paris asked excitedly.

"I really don't know Paris, maybe telekinesis, that's what Prue had," Phoebe answered, half-heartedly. She was getting fed up of Paris continuingly asking questions that she couldn't answer or didn't want to.

"What's telekinesis like? Is it cool?" Paris said eagerly.

"Prue liked it, it was definitely better than my power of premonitions, they're kinda pathetic, useful though," Phoebe replied.

"But you have two powers," Paris noticed. "Did Prue have two powers as well as you?"

"Yeah, she could Astral Project," Phoebe said. "That means being in two places at once," she added, remembering that Paris didn't know anything about witchcraft or powers.

"Does that mean I'll get two powers?" Paris asked enthusiastically.

"I _said _I don't know!" snapped Phoebe, finally losing her temper. Cole interrupted before Paris could reply.

"What Phoebe means is; there are so many witch powers that you could get, that Phoebe doesn't know how many or which ones you will get," Cole explained.

"Okay," said Paris apologetically. "Sorry," she didn't like it when Phoebe lost her temper with her, it made her feel like she was intruding into their family and taking Prue's place.

She didn't belong here. Paris knew her sisters were only letting her stay at the Manor because they needed her help with vanquishing Shax. Paris didn't want to vanquish her mom but she knew it was the right thing to do and it was probably the only way to get Piper, Phoebe and Paige to like her.

"It's okay, sweetie," Phoebe sighed. Paris looked down, avoiding eye contact with her sister.

That moment, Piper and Paige came into the attic, closely followed by Leo. Piper spoke first: "The potion's ready," she stated.

"I don't even understand why we need a potion; I thought you said me saying the spell with you was enough?" Paris wondered out loud. This time, Leo answered: "It's just a precautionary measure. In case Shax reacts badly and tries to kill you. If that does happen, throw the potion at her, it will hurt her enough so she can't whirl out, then call for us immediately," he explained.

"That's not going to happen, is it?" Paris asked, looking worried.

"It's okay you know, if you don't want to do it right now. We'll understand if you're not ready. You don't have to do this," Paige said, making it clear they forcing Paris to do anything she didn't want to do.

Piper glared at Paige as if saying that it did matter if she changed her mind and that she did have to it now. Paige dismissed it though.

"No, it's fine. I need to get it over with otherwise I'll never do it," Paris decided.

"Okay then," said Piper, handing Paris the vial. Leo took Paris' hand and orbed them out of the attic.

Paris found herself in front of the apartment block that she had lived in all her life and was scared. She didn't want to go through with it, but there was no backing out now.

Leo put a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Just remember, if you feel threatened in any way, call either Paige or me," he explained. Paris nodded in understanding.

"Thanks, Leo," she answered. He orbed back to the attic to wait for Paris' call with the others.

With Leo gone, there was definitely no turning back now, she had to do it. For her sisters. For Prue.

"This is it," she said to herself as she made her way through the entrance of the block. She quietly tip-toed up the five flights of stairs to the sixth floor and walked up to apartment 6B. No one had bothered to fix the door and Paris wondered why no one was out looking for her; her mother was nowhere to be found and their apartment door had literally been blown off its hinges.

Paris stepped through the doorway and made her way into her mom's room, thinking it was the best place to go.

Lots of stuff was going through Paris' mind. What if her sisters and Leo were right? What if her mom did try and kill her? Paris didn't want to think about those things and clutched the vial tightly in her right hand.

She took a deep breath and called out: "Mom?" nothing happened, maybe she had been wrong, maybe her mom wasn't listening to her.

"Mom?" Paris tried again. Still nothing. Maybe it needed to be more personal. "Mom, I know you can hear me and I just want you to know that I forgive you. I understand that you weren't trying to kill me when you flung me against the wall. I understand that. I do, mom, honestly," Paris continued.

There was a slight breeze and Paris shivered. All of a sudden Paris could see Shax whirling down. As she landed, Shax turned into the person that Paris truly loved, Joanne Lacey; her real mother.

"Baby, you really forgive me?" Joanne asked softly.

"Yeah mom, I do," Paris replied.

"You've got to understand Paris that I never wanted to do any of this. I never wanted to hurt you or your sisters. I never wanted to kill Prue. The Source made me; he threatened that if I didn't do as he said, he would kill you. You've got to understand that I couldn't let that happen," Joanne started explaining herself to her daughter.

"I get it mom but what I really want to know is; was it all true? The way you loved me and cared for me? All the fun we had? Was it true?" Paris asked.

"Of course it was. Paris, I may have kidnapped you when you were a baby but the moment I set eyes on you, I loved you. I originally took you in because The Source told me to but after that, I never wanted to let you go. That's why I didn't tell you about magic, I couldn't risk you using your whitelighter powers and letting the Source track you. Why do you think I never went into my demonic form? I couldn't, otherwise the Source would have found me," Joanne said.

"You didn't want him to?" Paris asked, confused.

"No, you changed me Paris, don't you see that? Before I met you, I was a heartless monster, who killed everything or anyone the Source told me to. But once I adopted you, I didn't want to be a demon anymore, I wasn't a demon anymore. Thank you," Joanne continued.

"No mom, thank you. For raising me and loving me," Paris said.

"You don't understand, the Source won't be looking for me anymore, he doesn't care if you aren't evil if Prue is dead. We can still stay together, you and me, here,"

"You don't understand mom, you're evil," Paris finished.

A flash of hatred could be seen in Joanne's eyes but you overcame it.

"Paris, you don't mean that, you know it's not true. Those dreadful witches have brainwashed you," Joanne insisted.

"Those dreadful witches happen to be my sisters, mom and they want revenge. You murdered their sister. You murdered _my _sister,"

"Don't be silly, you never even met the woman,"

"I'm sorry," Paris muttered.

"No!" screamed Joanne, turning into Shax and flinging her daughter across the room and into the wall.

_**A/N: Cliff hanger! Only one more chapter left. Please review.**_


	18. Vanquishing Shax

**Chapter Eighteen – Vanquishing Shax**

_**A/N: I'm so sorry that this is really short! I actually hand-wrote this on Tuesday but tried to think of ways to make it longer so didn't type it up. I finally decided that it was fine how it was seeing as it is THE LAST CHAPTER! I cannot thank all my reviewers enough and I appreciate every review/favourite/follow! Enjoy!**_

As Paris hit the wall, she felt the potion vial in her hand break. She yelled out in pain as a mixture of glass and potion came in contact with her skin. It was burning her, and it hurt. Trust Piper to make a potion that burnt flesh and not tell her.

"Paige," muttered Paris softly as she slowly stood up. Her hand was almost numb from the pain but still managed to hurt like hell. Paris actually felt as if she could easily faint from the pain but she willed herself to stay conscious.

She suddenly noticed that Shax was about to whirl out.

"Stop," Paris ordered, throwing her burnt hand out. Somehow, Shax flew across the room and into the full-size mirror. Paris looked at her hand in shock as she realised that she must have finally got her witch power; telekinesis.

After a couple of seconds, a dazed Shax had almost fully recovered and once again tried to whirl out.

"Don't move, mom," ordered Paris for the second time. This time, however, she kept her arms by her side. To her surprise, her demon mother obeyed and didn't try to whirl out again.

Paige orbed in with Piper and Phoebe. Piper quickly froze Shax before she could get away. Paris could feel the flesh on her hand burning off and could no longer hold back her tears.

Phoebe noticed the pain in her baby sister's eyes and hurriedly rushed over to Paris' side.

"Oh my goodness, Paris! What happened?" asked Phoebe, fearing the answer.

"I'm fine," sniffed Paris. "It was the potion," she explained.

"You made a burning flesh potion?" Phoebe asked Piper and Paige, appalled.

"She was supposed to throw it at Shax, not herself!" Piper insisted.

"It broke when she flung me across the room. I guess you guys were right about her, she's a demon, not a mother," Paris accepted, sadly.

Paige looked down, concerned about Paris' hand.

"Maybe we should call Leo?" she offered, feeling slightly guilty that it was her potion that had done this to her sister.

"There's no time," Piper said. "The freeze will wear off in a few seconds," she continued, making her point clear. Piper wanted to call her husband so he could heal her sister, she really did but Shax had escaped too many times. They had to vanquish once and for all. This was their chance. The chance they had been waiting for.

"I think I have a new power," Paris spoke quietly, trying to hide the pain from her voice.

"What is it, sweetie? What did you do?" Phoebe asked, genuinely interested.

"I flung my mo - Shax against the wall," she explained to her newly found sisters. Piper wasn't convinced. She didn't want to be convinced.

"Are you sure?" she snapped. Piper didn't want to believe that Paris had telekinesis. It meat she was taking the place of Prue. It meant Prue, her sister and best friend, was never coming back. And she couldn't accept that.

"Piper," Paige started but stopped as Shax unfroze.

"_Evil wind that blows," _Piper started the spell, taking Phoebe's hand. It was time to do what they had wanted to do for so long.

"_That which forms below," _Phoebe took over, clasping Paige's hand.

"_No longer may you dwell," _Paige continued. She quickly grabbed Paris' hand to get her to say the last part of the spell.

"I'm sorry, mom. I love you," she whispered. Paris could see her mother screaming in pain under her demonic mask. Paris wished and wished there was some way, anyway to get out of vanquishing her mother. But Piper wasn't going to let that happen.

"Finish the damn spell, Paris!" Piper ordered. Paige gently squeezed Paris' hand for encouragement.

"_Death takes you with this spell," _sobbed Paris.

Shax howled in pain and then – she was gone. There was no trace left of her; no body, no ashes, no nothing.

Paris collapsed into a heap on the floor as she realised what she had just done. Murdered her mother. How could she do that? Why hadn't she seen it before? Her mother wasn't evil, she hadn't been a demon. But Paris had killed her. It was for Prue though, she told herself. For her sister.

"For Prue," she whispered quietly as she passed out.

_**A/N: THE END! Hopefully I will start the sequel soon. So look out for it. It is going to be called Belonging. Please review!**_


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Charmed, Family, Supernatural